


simply, always, more of you

by MayWilder



Series: the gift of you [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adopted Peter Parker, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bisexual Peter Parker, But this is NOT smut, Everyone Loves Peter Parker, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Married Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Operation: Seduce Peter Parker, Pepper potts is a good mom, Sex is heavily implied later, Tony Stark is a Good Dad, but also Operation: make him fall in love with me, but also they are teenagers, teenagers in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-08 17:26:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18899272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayWilder/pseuds/MayWilder
Summary: Kissing Peter is better than swinging through Manhattan, sitting atop the Brooklyn Bridge, eating the most delicious food, or spending time with Tony Stark. The boy in his arms, lips moving against his in a leisurely kiss, makes Harley feel so fucking incredible. They’re just kids, but surely, surely, this is true love. The comfort, the sense of wanting to stay forever, the way his mind can only focus on Peter.Its almost too much.Its not enough.***Or, Harley wants Peter like he’s wanted nothing before, and he's in it for the long game.





	1. the gravity of you

**Author's Note:**

> My friends. This was supposed to be a long-ish one shot, nothing more than Harley Keener saying "I'm going to make Peter fall in love with me." Instead, it turned into six chapters of teenagers and summer love.  
> The story is mature and marked underage, but there will be NO explicit sex. What will eventually come is pretty mild. The boys are both seventeen, so both are at the age of consent in New York, but if that sounds like you would be uncomfortable, I will let you know when it comes.
> 
> takes place the summer after the events of "boundaries of myself"

Peter sleeps in on the first day of summer break. He sleeps in so long, that when he wakes up, it takes him a moment to remember what year it is or where the bathroom’s located. He’s relaxed, he’s content, and he’s…hungry. The smell of sausage is wafting through the air and assaulting him to the point that his stomach growls loudly and seems to clench with irritation.

He scrambles into the kitchen. Pepper laughs at how eagerly he climbs into a chair at the bar and attacks the biscuit she places in front of him. “Good afternoon, sweetie.”

Peter hums in reply, wiping at his eyes. “Morning.”

With another laugh, she offers a cup of coffee and then sets about making a full plate of food.

“After you eat, you need to shower and get dressed,” she tells him. Peter takes a pause to appreciate how casual she looks in jean shorts and a tank top, hair down and smile affectionate. Its still weird to reconcile that this woman is his mom, the same woman who dominates the business world in suits and stilettos. “When Tony gets back, we’re spending a day on the town.”

This distracts him enough that he sits up and realizes his dad is nowhere to be found. “Where is he now?”

The corner of Pepper’s mouth twitches. “Picking up an old friend.”

By “old friend” Pepper means Harley Keener, a kid Tony met years ago that he’s kept in contact with as a mentor of sorts. Tony speaks of him fairly often, and he was even called on Skype to witness the small ceremony Pepper and Tony had last summer. They both adore him, even if Tony complains about never-ending sass and a pain in the ass.

There is also the fact that his mere presence in Tony’s lab over a year ago sent Peter _falling out of the closet_ and into bisexual awareness, all because of leather pants and a southern drawl.

He spent weeks after that agonizing over the newfound awareness that he was bisexual. And now, here Harley Kenner is, walking into the penthouse looking like sex on two legs. Peter’s breath catches in his throat at the sight. Harley is taller and leaner than Peter, and he walks almost lazily. He wears tight, ripped jeans and a loose white v-neck (what is with this dude and the v-necks?! Does he know about Peter’s obsession with his collarbones?). With headphones hanging loosely around his neck and leather cords around his wrists, he looks like nobody Peter has ever been friends with but someone he is still incredibly attracted to.

“Oh no,” Peter whispers to himself. _Shit._

“Harley!” Pepper says with a wide smile. She hugs him tightly before Tony ruffles his hair. “Its so good to see you.”

“You too, Pep.” The boy says. He glares at Tony. “I didn’t like that when I was twelve, and I don’t like it now.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “Bite me.”

“Something tells me you aren’t as tasty as this one,” Harley says, blue— _blue blue blue_ —eyes trailing over Peter. “Peter, good to see you again. It’s been awhile.”

“Yeah-yeah, it has,” Peter chokes out, trying to force his hands to stop sweating. “Tony’s told me a lot about you, though, since we met. All good things, of course. Actually, not all good things, he’s kind of an ass about it. But not like—

“Darlin’, you don’t have to soften the blow,” Harley cuts him off with half-smirk. “Tony is a total ass.”

“So are you.” Tony points out, in almost bored tone of voice. “We gonna get this show on the road, or do you two want to stand around and insult me?”

“We can go!” Peter squeaks while Harley shrugs and says, “I’m good to stand around and insult you.”

“Peter, will you show Harley to his room?” Pepper cuts in gracefully. “We’ll head out after he gets his stuff put down.”

Peter decides its better not to talk and simply nods. He turns without saying anything to Harley and walks to the guest room. The other kid doesn’t speak either, just casually strolls along with his suitcase trailing behind him. It gives Peter enough time to collect himself so that he can step into the room with a lazy flourish.

“So, this is you,” he says lightly. “Bathroom is the door directly to the left. Unless you brought your own shampoo and stuff, there’s plenty of mine to use. Towels are in the closet in the bathroom, extra blankets right over there….and I’m across the hall if you need anything after you get in bed.”

Harley huffs out a small laugh, a spark of open amusement flickering across his features. Peter realizes what he’s said and doesn’t bother to hide his cringe. Why can’t he control himself around this guy?

“God, I just mean, open door policy and all that. I wasn’t trying to suggest—you know.”

“Shame,” Harley sighs dramatically. He lets go of his suitcase and looks through the window. “It’s a little bizarre seeing you, Peter. Tony talks about you non-stop. I was jealous when y’all first met, since I’d always been Tony’s favorite prodigy. He likes adopting us, obviously, but you’re something different than me. You’re actually his kid, you know?”

Peter isn’t sure what he’s supposed to say to that, and he doesn’t think he’s supposed to. There’s something in the other boy’s tone that sounds like blessing or approval. Peter’s too unfocused to be annoyed at the presumption there, and he gets exceptionally flustered when Harley turns back around. He doesn’t look like someone who ever just smiles, only smirks. There’s amusement though, and his fingers brush the inside of Peter’s wrist. “He’s also happier with you around. He needs you. I think its pretty cool.”

As they walk back out to the foyer, Peter can’t help but gloss over everything Harley has said because he focuses on that single touch to his wrist.

Peter’s palms won’t stop sweating.

The afternoon is mostly spent taking tours of Ellis Island and the 9/11 memorial before heading to Central Park for a late lunch. As the sun dips lower, they go to the top of the Empire State Building, and have dinner at a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint. The evening is ended with The Lion King on Broadway. It’s all very touristy.

There was little time to rest, but Peter has an absolute blast. Harley proves to be lively conversation (when he isn’t harassing Tony) and is incredibly intelligent. More than once, he loses his “don’t care about anything” act to get passionate about engineering. His eyes _literally_ sparkle and the corners of his mouth twitch as they discuss ways to make an environmentally friendly battery for the newest Starkphone. Tony, like he does with Peter, listens to the guy and actually makes notes of his suggestions.

In between these conversations, however, Harley doesn’t drop the way he looks at Peter. Many times, their hands brush while walking, but Harley never seems to move away. He buys Peter a silly Statue of Liberty hat, plops it on his head, and takes a selfie (“For proof, you know. Abby won’t believe I met someone as cute as you if I don’t have pictures.”) While at dinner, they sit close together, and Harley lets his thigh rest against Peter’s.

Peter doesn’t actually know how to reciprocate, but he also doesn’t stop him because he kind of likes it. He just has to figure out how to talk to him once Harley starts flirting. He should also probably learn how to maintain eye contact.

(Harley’s just so good looking.)

This fact that he can hardly look at the other boy means he almost misses something very important.

_How he eats his popcorn._

“What the hell?” Peter squeaks, momentarily forgetting the beauty of this boy as he pops kernels into his mouth one by one.

“What?” Harley asks innocently. “I’m eating my popcorn.”

“Like a lunatic, who eats piece by piece?”

“Is there a pattern?”

‘You have to be doing this on purpose, there’s no way one by one is the normal.”

“Come on, darlin’, its just popcorn.”

“Tony!” Peter exclaims, motioning to Harley. “Please tell me I’m right.”

Tony shoves a handful of popcorn in his mouth as an answer. Peter makes a noise of triumph and turns back to Harley, who just raises a single eyebrow. His tongue pokes out to flick a single flake in his mouth before he chews with a smirk.

Peter clears his throat. “You’re clearly insane.”

“Aren’t all geniuses, pretty boy?”

**)-(**

Peter feels a chill run down his spine before his eyes flash open. He doesn’t have time to think, just follows his instincts and reaches for the possible threat, pulling the body above him into the bed so he can sit atop them. One hand holds two wrists above their heads, the other pressing his arm into their throat.

“Fuck,” Harley gasps, breath tickling Peter’s chin. “Gotta say baby, if I knew waking you up led to this, I would have come in here hours ago.”

Peter’s senses snap into reality. He understands that he’s sitting on Harley, restraining him as if he’s a threat. With a wince, he lets up the arm across the throat. “Sorry! I’ve been a little…twitchy since stuff with Thanos went down. Did I hurt you?”

“Nope.” Harley whispers. It’s clear to Peter that boy is a little flushed, with wide pupils and parted lips. The whole scene completely fogs Peter’s mind. “You might wanna let up, though, before I lose all hope at conversation.”

He jerks away nervously, running a hand through his hair as he slides off Harley’s body. “Right, sorry. Everything okay?”

He doesn’t pay attention to how Harley looks in nothing but sweat pants, lithe muscles moving as he sits up with way more grace than he has any right to have.

He doesn’t.

“So, don’t freak out, but I know you’re Spider-Man.”

Peter feels his pulse quicken. “How the hell am I not supposed to freak out?”

“Freak out, then, I can take it,” Harley says lightly. One of his hands—big hands—settles onto Peter’s knee. “Anyways, I was wondering, can you take someone with you when you use your webshooters? Can they, and you, hold that much weight?”

“I have enhanced strength,” Peter answers slowly. “If someone were on my back or in front of me, but a little lower, I should have almost full range with my arms. That would let me take someone with me, but I’ve only done it once before.”

Harley shoots him that smirk and Peter knows he’s in trouble.

**)-(**

And that’s how Harley ends up on Peter’s back, holding tightly to him while they sling across Manhattan. Harley throws his head back and whoops, wishing there was a way to describe what this is like. Peter alternates between a steady swing across skyscrapers and letting them drop in free fall towards the buildings. Harley’s never felt anything remotely similar to the way his stomach drops and flutters as he clings to Peter, secure in the other boy’s strength and free in a way he’s never been before.

They stop atop the Brooklyn Bridge. Peter lets Harley ease off his back before turning. The superhero’s eyes are bright, cheeks flushed and hands almost twitchy, as if he’s coming down from a high. “So, you liked it?”

“That was incredible,” Harley answers earnestly. He can’t look away from Peter, who’s so goddamn pretty it almost hurts. “The city looks amazing from up here.”

“It’s the greatest feeling in the world,” he agrees. “There’s like, this moment, right when we arch up before dropping back down, that you feel like you’re flying. You feel out of control, though, when you go back down and the adrenaline that comes with it—did you feel that?”

“Yes.”

“Man, there’s nothing like it in the world.” Peter drops down and lets his feet hang over the edge. There aren’t too many cars on the bridge below them, but the skyline of New York is still lit up and breathtaking. Harley settles in next to Peter, pleased that they’re comfortable around each other.

When Harley had seen Peter for the first time, he was sure he was in love. He thought about him, frequently, with his Bambi eyes and pink lips that were begging for some sort of attention. He was Harley’s secret shame, thought about constantly and never spoken to because of how far away and untouchable he was.

_“Why didn’t you tell me he looked like that?”_

_“Like what?”_

_“Perfection.”_

_“Harley, you’re sixteen, calm down.”_

_“I refuse. I saw pictures of him, but Christ he looks good in person. All muscly with Bambi eyes and his little science pun shirt. I want him forever.”_

_“You don’t even know him.”_

_“I love him.”_

_“Oh my god, kid. Just…don’t freak him out, okay?”_

Over a year later and he looks the same, except somehow cuter in his dorky sweaters and Iron Man pajamas. He’s adorable, in that innocent way that makes a part of Harley feel raw for being so attracted to it. He’s sweet and helpful and honest. He clearly doesn’t know what to do with Harley’s flirtations, but still looks pleased by them, and gets so flustered Harley wants to spend hours laying him back and teasing him until he’s dazed and red all over.

Harley wants Peter like he’s wanted nothing before.

But now, looking him in the eyes and thinking, _I could kiss him and he would let me_ , Harley knows that isn’t what he wants. He’s going to make Peter want him too, for longer than one night. He’s going to play the long game; understand Peter, let Peter understand him, tease him and show him what he can have for as long as he wants it. He’s known this kid for one day and he’s so far gone.

So, he looks back towards the skyline and doesn’t think about how full Peter’s lips are, and what exactly he could do with them.

“How did you know I’m Spider-Man?” Peter asks softly. “I’m not part of the Avengers yet, and Tony said nobody needed to know my identity until then.”

“I put it together. Tony started bringing you up all the time, and he sometimes got so excited that he would use ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Peter’ interchangeably, especially in between the Snap and the Reverse Snap. It wasn’t very hard to figure it out.”

Peter tilts his head. “I know that Tony loves me, I mean, he’s my dad. He and Pepper adopted me because they wanted me. I didn’t realize he talked about me, though, the way you describe it.”

_You look like an actual goddamn puppy._

“You’re the most important thing to him, Peter,” Harley assures him gently. “I won’t pretend to know what it was like for you to be in the stone. But dude, you should be glad you weren’t here to see Tony. He was wrecked after you were gone. Flew down to Tennessee to make sure I was alive, then sobbed for an hour when he saw me. if I tried to leave, he refused to let me. He flew me back to New York so he could keep an eye on me while we worked on a way to get you back.”

“None of them talk about it around me,” Peter says softly. “When I first got back, I stayed with Tony for a couple months, and I know he had nightmares, but they never said anything. I’ve tried to ask Pepper plenty of times since, even up to a couple weeks ago, but she refuses to answer. It’s been over a year.”

“It was bad, Peter,” Harley whispers. An unpleasant chill settles over him when he remembers late nights spent in the lab, working until his hands went numb and pulling Tony away to sleep. He remembers a woman, dark hair and sad eyes, glued to Pepper’s side and sharing stories of Peter to pass the time. Harley knows she’s gone now, so he doesn’t mention her, but he still has to look away from the boy next to him. “The entire world was fucked up during that time.”

“You lost somebody, right? I feel like I remember you saying something about that.”  
  
“Yes sir. My sister was dusted. I worked with Tony to build the suits you guys needed because I needed to have something to do. All of my life, I’ve watched over her and it…it never stopped hurting that I looked away for two seconds and she was gone. The guilt stayed with me for a while after she came back. It’s just…it really sucked.”

“And now?”

“I’m here and not breathing down her neck in Tennessee, so I’ve made progress. The first few months, I could barely let her out of my sight.”

_I should call her tomorrow morning._

Peter hums thoughtfully, but says nothing else. He and Harley spend the next half hour or so like that. Its peaceful, comfortable, and Harley marvels at the fact that its almost as quiet above the bridge as it is in his own hometown at night. He wonders, would the boy beside him would like wide open spaces? Or would he need the buildings to swing from and the noise to filter through?

“Thanks for this,” Harley says later, when he slides from Peter’s back and onto the fire escape. “I wanted to see something unique, and you definitely did that.”

“We’ll go to Queens sometime,” Peter offers. “Give you a more…human experience.”

“I’d like that. Goodnight, Peter.”

“Night, Harley.”

Operation: Seduce Peter Parker begins in the morning.

**)-(**

Tony looks between Harley and Peter at the breakfast table the next morning. “So, FRIDAY alerted me that people thought they saw Spider-Man out last night.”

“Oh?” Pepper asks as if this is her first time hearing of it. “How late?”

“Later than three am.”

Peter says nothing. Tony watches his face go red and duck down while Harley simply tilts his head in mock-confusion. “That’s weird. Everybody knows Spider-Man has a curfew.”

Tony purses his lips as the boys share a smirk. It’s going to be an interesting summer if Harley’s been here less than twenty-four hours and he’s already got Peter sneaking out. “I’m going to pretend I’m not amused by that and remind you, Peter, that you aren’t supposed to be out between twelve and eight. I don’t monitor what you do in your room at night, for what I think are obvious reasons—

“Oh my god, _Dad._ ”

“—but I do trust you enough to do what you’re told,” Tony finishes. He shares a look with Pepper. “So, Pep and I decided that you can’t be Spider-Man for a couple weeks.”

“What?!” Peter exclaims. He looks between them. “It wasn’t like I was patrolling, I was just showing—myself around the city.”

“At night, with Karen offline?” Pepper asks. “Do you even understand how dangerous that is?”

“I can protect myself.”

“And Harley?” Tony challenges. The otherwise silent teenage boy looks guiltily at Peter. “You can try to hide it, but you took Harley out, into one of the most unreliable cities in America, at night, with no back up plan.”

“I can be my own back-up plan!”

“Tony, we were perfectly safe and didn’t even talk to anyone.”

“Absolutely not.” Pepper holds her hands up to both. “Peter, you know our rules and you disobeyed them.”

Tony can see Peter’s hands clutching at the fork. In recent months, the kid has become increasingly frustrated with their attempts to keep him safe. Tony doesn’t know how to balance “he’s seventeen and isn’t mature enough to be his own guardian” with “he’s got heightened capabilities and above average intelligence.” Honestly, he’s floundering and there are no books on taking care of teen superheroes.

Pepper, fortunately, has dealt with superheroes long enough.

“You have responsibilities outside of being Spider-Man. Those include you being under our authority. You live in our house, you live by our rules. When we set them, there was a discussion about fairness and realistic expectations. You agreed to a curfew, notifying us when something major happens, maintaining your studies, and one extracurricular. That’s relatively mild, considering we let you slap on spandex and fight bad guys every other night. Not a single one of these rules is negotiable.”

She looks at Harley. “And you are used to parents not caring where their kids are. I’m sorry, but that’s not the reality here. Curfews are put in place for your safety. I expect you both to respect them.”

Harley nods sharply, the line of his mouth thin as Peter stands and refuses to look at any of them. “May I be excused?”

“Yes,” Tony says before Pepper can argue. It’s kind of a dick thing to do, but Tony knows what its like to be reprimanded by Pepper in front of people. The difference for him is that he doesn’t understand embarrassment. Peter does.

The kid walks away quickly, leaving Harley alone with Pepper and Tony. He clears his throat and looks them square in the face. “I understand that he broke a rule, but it wasn’t his fault. I asked him to take me out, and I definitely didn’t stop flirting, which helped me get my way. This is on me.”

“I agree,” Pepper sighs. She leans back in her seat, shoulders drooped. “You know how we are about his safety.”

“I didn’t think it was a big deal,” Harley shrugs. His jaw is set, however, betraying how tense he is. “I figured I was in more danger than he was, but I wasn’t worried, because you talk all the time about Peter always trying to save everybody. We literally stayed in the sky the whole time, and we were gone for maybe an hour.”

Pepper purses her lips.

“Is this a bad moment to say I’m a little obsessed with him?”

“Harley,” Tony moans. “Not this again.”

“I love him and I want him to have my babies.”

“That’s not—Harley, you don’t even know each other.”

"And yet."

“Jesus Christ.” Pepper’s head falls forward. “Leave. Please go tell Peter that we’re going to the compound for the summer and to start packing.”

Harley grins and shoots up. He presses a kiss to Pepper’s cheek. “Love you, Potts.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

When the kid skips off, Tony looks at his wife with a grimace. “We wanted them to meet, right? And it’s just sneaking out, Peter isn’t that reckless.”

“Tony. He climbed on the back of a plane to stop you from getting robbed and to stop an alien weapons dealer. He climbed the Washington Monument to save his friends. He doesn’t think.” Pepper runs her hands over her face. “I miss May. Not just because of Peter, obviously, she was my best friend. But I don’t know what to do with his actions. They are somehow incredibly well thought out, and yet based on instinct. He just…plans as he goes.”

“You’re doing really well, Pep. _We’re_ doing well. This is new for us, and I think we can be forgiven a few hiccups.”

“I suppose,” Pepper replies. She moves to come sit in his lap and kisses him softly. “You’re a good dad, Tony. And a good husband.”

“Well, as you know, I’m good at everything I do.”

“Including having an ego the size of Texas.”

“Ah, so size _does_ matter.”

Pepper throws her head back to laugh at him, and Tony loses himself in the sound for a moment. He buries his face in her neck and follows the vibrations. Nobody laughs from the center of their chest the way Pepper does. Most people feel it in their belly, but Pepper’s laugh is breathless and beautiful.

“I love you,” Tony murmurs. “And I still think Harley being here will be good for Peter.”

“I’m not so sure anymore,” Pepper murmurs. “They’re magnetic, Tony, like nothing I’ve seen before. Reminds me of…” the way her mouth thins can only mean one thing.

“Bucky and Steve. Yeah, I know. Peter isn’t Steve, though. He’s good and wholesome and better than any of us.”

“We thought Steve was above mistakes.”

“Correction, everyone else did. And aren’t we all supposed to be past the whole Civil War thing? Everyone is good now, rainbows and sunshine.”

“Tony.” Pepper says seriously. “I’m not joking right now. Peter loves so intensely and attaches quickly. What happens if he falls in love with Harley and Harley falls in love with him? Going separate ways at the end of the summer is going to hurt him.”

Tony strains his ears, hearing Peter’s laugh float down the hall. “I know. I don’t even know what reason they would have to go off the rails, but the intensity between them is at that ‘I would abandon my family for you’ sort of level.”

_Like Steve did._

“We’ll just keep an eye out, I guess. We invited Harley because we know Peter likes him and we want him to stop being so scared of having feelings. I guess we can’t complain too much.”

“So, basically, if Harley and Peter fall in love and somehow burn the world down, its on us?”

“Yeah, sounds about right.”

_Fuck_ , Tony thinks. _Please let this work out the way we planned._


	2. let me discover who you are

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m…you know how I was talking about feeling cursed, the other day?”
> 
> “Yeah, about your parents.”
> 
> “I know its stupid, and I was in therapy for a while and understand intrusive thoughts, but sometimes I get freaked. Thinking about losing Tony and Pepper…I can’t lose them, and I feel like I’m the problem, and I couldn’t take that again.”
> 
> Harley tilts his head. He doesn’t look how he normally is; confident, seductive, teasing. Even when he laid his head in Peter’s lap the past few evenings, he didn’t look like this. Soft, with the inquisitive eyes normally reserved for the engineering lab, and gentle hands reaching to Peter’s so their fingers link.
> 
> “Peter,” he whispers. “You are not to blame."  
> ***  
> Or, Harley and Peter get to know one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love you guys <3

Going to the compound is one of Peter’s favorite things to do. He likes spending hours in the lab, playing games with the Avengers (certain members aside), reading and watching movies, or swimming in Tony’s waterpark (which is technically just an in-ground swimming pool with one slide for Clint’s kids). He normally forgets that its technically a facility for business, and that the home suites are the least of the building.

So, when Tony gives Harley a tour, he’s just as surprised as their house guest at the sheer amount of work they have going on. There are research labs, levels of training gyms suited to each Avenger, a medical wing that’s basically the size of a small hospital in case of emergency, and an armory. There are even classrooms and a full fledged cafeteria.

As the tour comes to a close, they meet Rhodey down under the armory in a massive underground chamber Peter definitely didn’t know about. Harley is told about it only briefly before he has his face pressed to a large glass window, which shows where government scientists and Stark Industries employees are milling around a new jet. His cheeks are pink and his gaze adoring, like he’s about to have a very personal moment. “I am going to ravish her and rebuild her, so that she knows nobody but me.”

Peter feels himself blushing, despite the fact that Harley is talking about a plane—one that Peter didn’t even know was being built.

“Touch her and you’re dead, Keener,” Tony says quickly. “Rhodey and I birthed her, and she won’t be defiled by you.”

“Defiled? I think improved.”

“Kid, I swear.” Rhodey points his finger threateningly. “That’s my baby girl. If you touch her—

“Your protective ideals of femininity are archaic. She can make her own choices, and she would choose me.”

“You are taking a metaphor and making it way too real. Tony, make the kid stop.”

The billionaire’s mouth twitches. Peter recognizes the expression that clear says he's amused by Harley's antics and trying to hide it. “We’re moving on, kid. You’ve seen the gym, but Peter’s afternoon is about to really get started with training.”

“Me?” Peter frowns. He looks up at Tony, who has a mischievous sort of glint in his eyes. “I don’t train. I don’t _need_ to train.”

“False,” his father corrects. “You need weapons training, hand to hand combat training, logistics—

“Wait,” Peter cuts him off. This is not what his visits to the compound are like. “What do you mean? I have a literal sixth sense and superhuman strength.”

“You can still be bested,” Tony offers. “Also, you need to know how to protect yourself without revealing your webby alter ego. If you get mugged as Peter, I don’t want you whipping out your webshooters.”

“But my strength—

“Is something you will learn to control,” he explains. “Natasha and Steve are going to help you learn how to fight tactically, so you can protect yourself without snapping someone’s neck.”

“I’m gonna train with Captain Rogers?” Peter can’t keep the irritation out of his voice. Rhodey gives him a fist bump to the side; they both seem to be the only members of the team to retain any Steve-related hostility.

“Indeed.” Tony answers with a warning tone.

Harley raises his hand lazily. “Can I learn to be a super spy too?”

“Already planned.” Tony says. “You can train however you want.”

“But you have a plan for me?” Peter pouts.

“Harley isn’t training to be an Avenger.”

“Says you,” Harley mutters low enough for only Peter to hear.

“Dad, it’s summer.” Peter argues. “Do I have to start training right away? I can’t enjoy my freedom while I’m young and unattached?”

Tony rolls his eyes. “Nice try at manipulation kid, but it won’t work. You are both getting changed, and then you’re starting your training.”

“Come on.” Harley slings an arm around Peter’s neck, drawing them close enough that Peter gets goosebumps from the breath that ghosts across his neck. “It’ll be fun. Maybe we can get Captain America to train shirtless.”

“No,” Peter says fearfully. The thought of watching Harley ogle Steve for hours is enough to make him feel sick. His reaction has drawn raised eyebrows from the other boy, however, so he coughs it off. “I just mean, Cap’s pretty modest.”

Tony snorts in disbelief.

“And you, Peter?” Harley asks in a low whisper. “Can I get you train with your shirt off?”

Peter swallows. “I mean, if I get sweaty or something?”

He grimaces. God, its painful. Let him die now.

“A guy can dream,” Harley sighs.

**)-(**

Peter gets distracted by Harley’s ass in his workout shorts. He gets so focused on the other boy that his senses completely disregard Natasha swiping his feet from beneath him and knocking him on his ass.

Harley’s only response is to grin and wink at Peter.

**)-(**

Harley knows that Peter physically appreciates his presence. What he doesn’t know is if the teenage superhero can even be friends with him. Peter and he haven’t had much opportunity talk since the night on the Brooklyn Bridge, and he wants to really know Peter. Wants Peter to know _him_.

But Peter also doesn’t seem to know how to converse with just Harley. So, Harley figures he needs a warming up period. It’s after dinner a few nights after they arrive at the compound when Peter is playing video games. Harley flops himself onto the couch next to him, moving so his head is in Peter’s lap. Peter raises his arms up and looks down, mildly confused. “Um, Harley?”

“Yeah?” he doesn’t look away from the TV. “Nazi on your six.”

Peter swallows, but settles his arms comfortably so that he can keep playing with Harley so snuggled up. They don’t move for hours. Every so often, Peter glances down at Harley with a really sweet smile that Harley feels in his gut. He wants Peter Parker _so very bad_.

He focuses back on the TV to find some shred of self-control.

“My dad left when I was six.” Harley says after a while. Might as well clear the air with his issues. “We were playing cards. He kissed my head, said he was going to go win the lottery for our family, and then walked out. I waited up all night for him, watched the driveway like he would show up and tell me he got stuck in the snow or something. He left like it was nothing.”

Peter pauses his game and looks down at Harley. He doesn’t say anything.

“Like, I waited for him for so long. Up until that call, I waited for some explanation, some apology. I wanted him there. Even after Tony came into my life, and he was more of a father than anyone, and yet…nothing can fix it. Nothing fixes how I made my sister’s lunches, or did mechanical work as a twelve-year-old for people around town just to have money. It doesn’t change that my mom worked hours on end to help us scrape by and cried herself to sleep ever night. It doesn’t change that when half of the fucking universe was wiped from existence, the bastard couldn’t muster up enough courage to come see if his children survived.”

“He’s missing out,” Peter answers. He reaches up hesitantly, before settling a hand into Harley’s hair. “You’re fun, and smart, and probably a _great_ card player.”

Harley huffs out a laugh.

“And I don’t know what its like for someone to leave,” Peter finishes. “But I know that I’ve found people who love me and want to protect me. I mean, I’ve had two sets of parents die and Pepper and Tony still want me. They don’t think I’m some cursed kid who is probably gonna kill them. I know it sounds dramatic, but when I get into my head and feel like I’m the problem, I remember that there are people who love me, who choose to be around despite the fact that I’m a little fucked up. Your sister loves you from what I can tell, Tony has kept in contact for years. Pepper genuinely enjoys your company and talks to you like you have an actual brain. I-I like having you around.”

“Yeah?” Harley looks up into the sincere warmth of Peter's eyes.

“Yeah.” Peter tugs Harley’s hair a little. “There are people who want you. And the ones who don’t are stupid. Like your dad. Your dad is stupid.”

Harley laughs, turning his head into Peter’s stomach. He smells like fresh laundry. “Thanks, Parker.”

“Anytime.”

**)-(**

The next few days bring a sort of rhythm to things. Peter wakes up for a family run with Pepper and Tony, as well as Harley if the boy can pull himself from his bed. After breakfast, he works on the benefits of different weapons with Natasha and Bucky, who both favor guns. Harley takes a liking to the weapon and it makes Tony so nervous that he makes Sam evaluate him for safety reasons. Peter doesn’t really like any weapons, so Natasha says she’ll learn his webshooter choices to work with him on properly utilizing them.

He still learns how to properly use a gun, because that’s apparently a qualifier for being an Avenger.

After spending time with Natasha, he gets to practice on the gymnastic bars that Tony had installed for him. It’s a carefree time where he’s blessedly by himself, no distractions and no rules, and working on his balance and instincts.

Then, he works with Steve.

“A punching bag?” he asks the first day.

Steve chuckles at Peter. “Yes, a punching bag.”

“How is this going to help me control my strength?” Peter frowns. Across the large sparring mat, Natasha and Harley are going through practical hand to hand combat moves, and it’s mildly distracting.

“Eyes over here.” Steve snaps his fingers. Peter blushes and focuses back on Steve. “And it helps you learn to control strength because its repetitive, and its not a person, so you can’t hurt it. If you put all of your strength into the bag, it would fly across the room and kill someone, maybe break a wall. But, you can learn to control it the same way you learn through your science experiments: trial and error, followed by repetition to prove success.”

“So, I keep punching the bag, find an appropriate amount of restraint, and then do that over and over again before I can actually go in hand-to-hand combat with a regular human, without hurting them more than necessary?”

“Essentially.”

“That sounds boring.”

“Tough, kid.”

Peter huffs and rolls his shoulders, trying not to let his irritation control him. He knows its because its _Steve_ that’s instructing him, telling him what to do, and some of his discomfort is still there. He doesn’t want to train with Steve. He has to because he’s the only person like Peter, but…Peter doesn’t have to like it, right?

“You’ve done well so far” Steve sighs. “Let’s have a short water break, then finish up the morning with a punching bag.”

The next few days go much similarly. He contemplates it as he sits down by one of the benches, reaching for his water bottle and watching Steve walk over to the weight machines where Bucky stops in the middle of a set to speak to the captain. They do it every day, unable to be physically apart for too long. Peter supposes that thinking your boyfriend is dead for seventy years probably has something to do with that.

He’s just taken the first sip of his water when Harley drops down beside him gracefully. “You okay, sweetheart?”

“Yeah,” Peter sighs. “Just struggling with taking orders from Cap. Some days are worse than others. I’ve got some pent-up frustration for some reason.”

He can almost see Harley physically restrain himself from making a suggestive comment.

“I guess it makes sense if you weren’t around when he and Tony let water pass under the bridge,” the boy muses instead. “It was painful at first, but they got there.”

“Before the Snap, the last thing Cap had done to Tony was leave him to die in Siberia. After everything that happened, it didn’t make sense to come back and see them as friends. I’ve never talked about it with Tony, but every time I look at Cap I just see the guy who didn’t want to take responsibility for his own actions and tried to kill my dad.”

“Steve didn’t just say ‘fuck you’ to the Avengers, and that was the end of it,” Harley says gently. “You know that’s not the end of it.”

Peter watches Bucky pull Steve in for a kiss and averts his eyes. “I know that what happened after the bombing of the Accords was about protecting and loving Bucky. That makes sense to me, but Tony was on the other end of that. And before, he did say ‘Fuck you’ to the Avengers when he didn’t want to sign the Accords, despite how necessary and important they were. It’s like he didn’t even bother to read them or seek a compromise.”

“Did you?”

“Obviously. I didn’t go fight with Tony just because he was _Tony_. Anyways, he messed up there, and then he proceeded to admit that he kept the secret of the Starks’ death and left Tony to die. How does that all just go away?”

Harley sits up and takes Peter’s hands. “Darlin’, I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but you weren’t here. With half the universe wiped from existence, other things stopped mattering. Cap and Tony came back together because they had something bigger to fight for, something to set aside differences for. Did that take time? Yes. Did they both admit to wrongs and reach compromise? Yes. But none of it mattered in the grand scheme of things. Steve lost the love of his life, Tony lost you. Nothing else was as important as getting you both back.”

Peter hears the determination in Harley’s voice and sighs. “Is that your way of telling me its been forever, and I need to move on because in the grand scheme of things, how we got here doesn’t matter?”

“Kind of,” Harley chuckles. “I’m someone who believes the journey to somewhere _does_ matter, but not in that we hold grudges for problems, but that we find strength in our ability to overlook them. That includes forgiving Cap and the people who followed him. Because what matters now is that you all came back, Tony and Cap are friends, and everyone signed a revised Accords. Do you get what I mean?”

Peter nods. “Yeah, I do.”

“So, even though we stan one—” he holds up his index finger “—Tin Can Man, we also accept that the time has come to move past our differences.”

Harley and Peter sit there for a long moment, holding hands while Peter thinks about what he said, until Steve jogs over, a small smile on his face and looking invigorated by the few minutes he spent with Bucky. “Hey kid. You ready to start again?”

“Yes sir.” Peter says firmly. Harley looks at him with the smallest bit of approval and Peter feels his heart rate pick up. “I’m sorry for my attitude earlier. I’m ready now.”

“Aw, Pete, you don’t need to apologize,” Steve says. “But I appreciate it. Anyways, let’s see if we can make some progress today.”

They break window or two, but there is progress made that day—on a couple different fronts.

**)-(**

When there are a lot of people around, Harley notices that Peter can’t keep his mouth shut. He gets over-eager. Sometimes, you can literally see him vibrating with excitement over a concept. But when he’s tinkering in the lab or building with Legos, he likes to just sit with Harley and smile every so often.

_He’s so cute_ , Harley thinks to himself, trying to make sure he doesn’t look as enraptured as he feels over the top of his book. _So fucking cute, oh my god—_

“Hey!” Peter chirps, looking to the side. “I never showed you that place to get churros. Wanna head out?”

“With you, I’ll do whatever,” Harley says before he can help himself. To cover up the true sappiness of the statement, he throws a wink at Peter, who ducks his eyes down with an awkward chuckle. “But you can’t wear that shirt.”

“Science can be funny!”

“God, how am I so attracted to you?”

**)-(**

Peter wakes up in a panic, thinking someone he loves has died. His face is wet with tears and his heart rate is escalated, even for him. This has to be the millionth time he’s woken up like this. Normally FRIDAY alerts Tony and Pepper, but they aren’t here. Tonight, Harley is sitting by the edge of his bed.

“Hey,” Harley whispers. His fingertips lightly graze Peter’s hand. “It’s okay. I’m sorry I woke you up, but I could hear you when I was in the bathroom. I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Peter sniffles. “Just some nightmares, no big deal.”

Harley frowns. “Nightmares are definitely a big deal, baby.”

_Baby._

“I’m…you know how I was talking about feeling cursed, the other day?”

“Yeah, about your parents.”

“I know its stupid, and I was in therapy for a while and understand intrusive thoughts, but sometimes I get freaked. Thinking about losing Tony and Pepper…I can’t lose them, and I feel like I’m the problem, and I couldn’t take that again.”

Harley tilts his head. He doesn’t look how he normally is; confident, seductive, teasing. Even when he laid his head in Peter’s lap the past few evenings, he didn’t look like this. Soft, with the inquisitive eyes normally reserved for the engineering lab, and gentle hands reaching to Peter’s so their fingers link.

“Peter,” he whispers. “You are not to blame. I know it feels like that, feels like people leave, but they don’t. You make people stay, Peter. I heard it in how Tony talked about you years ago, know it because Pepper changed her schedule to be home for you, and how since you showed up at this compound, every single Avenger has returned simply because you’re here. You bring people in Peter. Death sucks and you’ve been dealt a shit hand, but…you aren’t a curse on anyone. Tony tore apart the fabric of the universe and then knit it back together because he needed you back. That sounds like the opposite of being the reason people die.”

Peter squeezes the hands holding his, tears pricking his eyes again.

“Okay?”

“Yeah,” Peter croaks. _Can he hear my heart?_ “Yeah, okay.”

“Are you good? Actually good?”

“I’m good,” he says honestly. Harley goes to leave, and Peter realizes he doesn’t want him to. “Um, but I probably won’t go back to sleep for a long time. I know it’s late, but if you’re not…tired or anything? We could watch a movie. I mean, this bed is obnoxiously large enough.”

_You invited him into your bed. Good job, Peter. Idiot._

“Yeah, that sounds good. I know you’re a Star Wars nerd, but have you ever watched _Star Trek?_ ”

“I’ve seen the reboots, which I like.”

“Christ Almighty, babe. Scooch. FRIDAY, play Star Trek, The Original Series. Start at the beginning.”

**)-(**

“FRIDAY,” Tony says at eight am. He’s holding his phone between him and Pepper. “Show feed of Peter’s room.”

Tony’s been waiting all night to check on Peter. When FRIDAY alerted to a nightmare, but also to the presence of Harley, Pepper convinced him to set it aside. Now they’re holding hands as it pulls the feed to show Harley and Peter holding hands, a foot apart, Harley on top of the covers respectfully. Peter looks impossibly peaceful.

Tony shuts the feed off, and they go back to sleep.

**)-(**

The first time there’s a mission, Harley and Peter are in the lab working on building a bike for Bucky that’s got a couple tricks up the sleeve.

“Have you seen _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?_ ” Peter asks excitedly. “Or read the book?”

“Several times, for both,” Harley answers. What self-respecting nerd hasn’t at least tried to like Harry Potter? “Why, you thinking about Sirius’ bike?”

“Maybe. The fire coming out of the exhaust is obviously not an option, but the fact that we could have something for Bucky to use if he’s ever escaping would be helping. Like, just a button he has to push without looking behind that’s guaranteed to cause some damage, or a distraction at the very least.”

Harley nods from where he’s working on the holster for one of Bucky’s guns. “That sounds more like Mario Kart.”

“Right, yeah! Just…no actual turtle shells.”

“Of course not, Peter. We’ll use banana peels.”

“Harley, you monster.”

“I prefer chaotic neutral, thank you very much.”

Peter giggles, pulling a notepad close. Harley watches him focus and start scribbling. “What are you doing?”

“Officially getting ideas written down. What do you think?”

Before Harley can suggest a glitter canon, FRIDAY speaks over the intercom. “Little Boss, Boss has requested your presence in briefing room four. There is a mission that would benefit from your particular talents.”

“Can Harley come, or is it classified?”

FRIDAY doesn’t answer immediately. Peter keeps working as if waiting for an answer, until FRIDAY says, “Mr. Keener is welcome to join.”

“Cool,” Peter chirps. He tosses his notepad to the side. Harley follows him in a comfortable silence, pleased that Peter seems to want to spend time with him. Harley’s mildly worried that he’s coming on too strong, too obsessively, but he doesn’t know how to reel it in. He’s never met anyone like Peter. He _feels_ strongly, he _feels_ slightly obsessed. He doesn’t know how to harness that.

“Hey,” Harley says quietly as they make it to an elevator. “Is my flirting making you uncomfortable? I don’t ever want to cross any lines.”

“No,” Peter assures him. “I’m just not…totally used to it. I don’t know what to do with the attention.”

Harley feels his nose scrunch up in confusion. He doesn’t know how to comprehend the idea that not everybody is as into Peter as he is because…well, _Peter._

“I, um, I like it though.” Peter continues. “The attention.”

Harley smirks, reaching out to brush his fingers on the inside of Peter’s wrists. “Good. You should be getting _all_ the attention.”

The conference room they go to is small. It holds Natasha, Clint, Steve, Tony, and Rhodey. Harley and Peter take a seat as Rhodey flicks a file onto the screen. “We’ve got an arms dealer in Russia who is looking to make a big sale to a big mafia organization. This ring is global, but their two biggest bases are in Russia and Canada. There’s military grade, alien tech. Bigger than anything you’ve ever seen, including what the Vulture was putting out there.”

Peter’s eyes widen, and Harley makes a note to get that story later.

“I thought this was above Avenger pay grade,” Peter says, looking at Tony. “You told me the FBI handles this kind of stuff.”

“Well, Vulture was not global,” Tony replies. “He was stealing from me and affecting New York, some parts of Jersey and New England, but New York mainly. This guy is putting alien tech in the hands of common criminals, yes, but also the big guys. This trip is a preventative measure to shut him down.”

“So what are we doing?” Clint asks.

“Sneaking in,” Steve says simply. “You need to get into this guys facility at night and clean him out. We’re hoping to make this a stealth operation where nobody gets hurt. You get footage of everything, find hard evidence linking Pavlov to the facility, and get back here.”

Natasha leans forward in interest. “Where is the facility?”

“Canada.”

“Canada?” Clint scoffs. “Who builds a weapons facility in Canada?”

“Nobody’s looking there,” Rhodey tells him. “Except the US has been following this arms dealer’s operation all over North America. This is not for the FBI or CIA. This is definitely Avengers territory. This guy cannot make it to places like Venezuela or Syria right now.”

Peter nods. “And I’m being asked…?”

“Because you have the ability to climb walls without being detected, sense anybody coming close, and have experience with human weapons fused with alien tech. You will follow Natasha’s lead, but you, her, and Clint are the only people with the stealth to pull this off.”

“Sounds fun,” Clint grins. “How can we be sure that Pavlov gets arrested, or not out on bail, or any of that shit?”

“That’s the importance of concrete evidence. You guys are not to clear out the facility until you have the evidence. This includes getting information on the people in his inner circle. We don’t want someone picking up where Pavlov leaves off. We want it shut down completely.”

When the briefing is over, Steve sends the three heroes off to pack for Canada. Peter talks excitedly about the mission the entire time, explaining how he’s only ever gotten to seriously go on three other assignments. Most of the time, he’s a background piece for the bigger stuff, but he gets to be really involved in this and he is thrilled.

Harley finds that he doesn’t like the thought of Peter going anywhere dangerous, and tries to ignore the worry that nags at him.

 

)-(

Harley refuses to be the guy who sits and mopes because his crush isn’t around. He’s never actually had friends before, so its easy to go hang out in the lab and finish Bucky’s new bike. He spends hours alone, listening to country music and distracting himself with work. He isn’t sure how much time has passed by the time he stands back, admiring the sleek black bike and knowing all the secret wonders that sit there. He sends a picture to Peter, who responds with a drooling emoji, and feels pretty satisfied.

He just needs to run trials.

Before he can ask Friday to alert Bucky, however, Tony pokes his head in the lab. “Hey kid, you wanna go for a drive?”

“Um.” Harley looks down at his jumpsuit and thinks about his hair. “Do I have any time to change?”

“Be in the garage in fifteen minutes.”

“Twenty.”

“This isn’t a negotiation.”

“So we agree, twenty minutes?”

Harley leaves before Tony can respond.

Twenty minutes later he and Tony are buckling into a car, Harley in the driver’s seat. “Why am I driving again?”

“To prove to me that you can.”

“What, you don’t trust me?”

“Oh, not at all.”

Harley rolls his eyes, but pulls out of the garage and follows the GPS. He doesn’t know if there’s ever been a time when he and Tony have been nice to each other. Their relationship has mostly been comprised of insults, shop talk, and little dose of competition. When they talk, there’s an underlying fondness to it all, a kindness in Tony’s actions and admiration in Harley’s, but never any _niceness_. It’s comfortable, paternal, and Harley wonders if this is what a boy’s relationship with his father was supposed to go grow into.

“Do you think of me as your kid?” he asks randomly. They’ve been leaving the upstate and heading towards the city. “Because I’m a little too young to be your friend, but we’re…us.”

“I don’t know,” Tony says honestly. He’s been more vulnerable lately. Harley thinks its because of Peter. “Well, I do think of you as my kid. I care about your future and I don’t totally hate your company. But you also aren’t my kid and I’m very aware of that. My relationship with you is different than with Peter, but you’re completely different people. I also find it hard to think of you both as sons because you can’t look at your siblings the way you two do.”

“I wanted to not like him,” Harley offers. “Because it kind of felt like I would never be as important. I was here first. I wanted you to love me most.”

Tony doesn’t say anything.

“But then I met him for two minutes. Before that, I saw how you were with him gone, and I understood. He’s incredible.”

“I tried to get you to come to New York, if you remember.” Tony crosses his arms. “You said you couldn’t leave.”

“You know I couldn’t leave Abby, and my mom would have never let her go with me. She’s still got that weird, possessive-but-doesn’t-care-attitude. And I’m not jealous anymore. I just wanted to know if you thought of me as your kid.”

“I think of you as someone I love. Someone I need to provide for, someone who I need to be there for at a moment’s notice.”

Harley thinks of ninth grade, mornings when he couldn’t get out of bed or do his school work because he didn’t feel anything. Mornings when it would be easier to not exist at all because he wasn’t capable of anything anyways, or because he was alone. Then, he thinks of Tony coming down to Tennessee and taking him to a counselor, calling him every day and pulling him from a funk.

“You don’t need me, Harley,” Tony tells him plainly. “You never have. But I want to be there for you. To provide for you. To love you. To…take you to pick out your first car.”

Harley looks up at where they’ve stopped and realizes he’s in a car dealership. The cars are normal cars, not luxury vehicles or Stark modified, but Camrys and Hondas and Subarus. He whips his head to look at Tony, who shrugs. “I know you wouldn’t want a car fancier than the town you live in, but we can still get you a new, good one. You can drive it back to Rose Hill at the end of the summer.”

He doesn’t know what to say.

“You’re my kid, Harley. We’re different with each other than with Peter, but that’s alright. We’re you and me, on the same wavelength. We’re—

“Connected.” Harley finishes with a grin. “Yeah, alright.”

“Good. Now that that’s settled, I’m going to go back to reminding you that you’re a little shit at every convenience.”

“Eh, you’ll forget in a few hours and I’ll just throw you into an old person’s home.”

“Do you even _want_ the car?”

 


	3. friendship set on fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MJ: I like him, Parker. As a person, and for you. Not that you should base your dating life on my opinion, but still. I like him.
> 
> Betty: Me too Pete! He’s totally in love with you and I LOVE THAT
> 
> Ned: Harley rocks! He needs to be our new best friend.
> 
> Peter: Thanks guys  
> Peter: I like him too  
> ***  
> Or, Harley and Peter fall deeper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so thankful for the support from you guys! It means everything to me. <3

When Peter gets back from the mission, things fall back into a comfortable routine. He starts grasping a better control of his strength (he manages to hit Steve without any real aggression), works in the lab, and falls a little bit more for Harley every day.

Harley is…fun. He pulls Peter along with his ridiculous pranks (“Cheese powder replacing orange juice is a literal classic, Peter!”) and encourages him to push himself with his experiments. They’ve blown up so many beakers that Tony has implemented a Red Alert from FRIDAY if it seems like things are getting out of hand. Nights are spent with popcorn and movies or Mario Kart tournaments.

“Don’t you have other friends?” Harley asks one night. They’re laying in Peter’s bed after a nightmare while watching Star Trek.

“Um, yeah,” Peter says. “I tell you about them all the time.”

“You never hang out with them.” Harley shrugs. “Is it normally like this when you come to the compound?”

“No, I guess I’ve just been distracted.”

Harley’s eyebrows draw together in an expression that Peter can’t actually read. “With me?”

“Nah.” Peter clears his throat, positive that Harley just saw through his lie. They fall into silence, Peter trying to slyly reach for his phone. He sends a text to his group chat, asking if everyone is free. The responses make him roll his eyes.

_Ned: HE LIIIIIIIIIIVES_

_MJ: Yay_   
_MJ: Now go back to sleep_   
_MJ: Also we are going to a movie tomorrow and its not negotiable_

  
_Betty: I’m down!! Can’t wait to see you Pete_

_Peter: Yeah. Missed you guys too_

From there, Peter often heads into Queens to spend some time with his friends. MJ tries to keep the Decathlon team meeting up for morale throughout the summer, so Peter sees everybody—even Flash, who is more tolerable when there’s nothing to compete over. It’s nice, even if they tease him about his crush and the boy on his Instagram.

“Why don’t you bring Harley around, Pete?” Betty asks. They play with the strands of their hair. “You talk about him a lot.”

“I don’t know,” he admits. “I guess it just feels like two different spaces.”

_And when Harley’s around, I don’t seem to focus on anything else_ , he thinks, worried to be teased more if he admits it out loud.

“Well, easy solution,” MJ shrugs. “Bring him around next time.”

So, Peter does.

He and Harley are sitting on the roof of the compound with homemade churros (a success) when his phone dings with a text from MJ.

_MJ: I'm going to a protest tonight if you losers think you can come without embarrassing me_

Peter hums thoughtfully before replying. _What's the protest for?_

_MJ: Wouldn't you like to know_

_Peter: Um yeah??? I need to know before I protest because protesting something you don't know if you agree with or not defeats the purpose of informed protesting??_

_Betty: Omg MJ_   
_Betty: Now is not the time to be mysterious_

_MJ: It is ~always~ the time to be mysterious_

Peter snorts at her and waits for the explanation.

_MJ: But nah, some of us are protesting the rights of tenants in this shit of a city. There's a guy who's getting away with some real fucked up things_

_Betty: I thought you loved New York?_

_MJ: New York is the best city in this goddamn country_   
_MJ: (But also it's shit)_

_Ned: noted and agreed with_

_Peter: Will research and let you know_

_MJ: You don't trust me, Parker?_

_Peter: Informed. Protesting._

_MJ: I respect that._

“So, my friends are going to a protest,” Peter says, already searching for information. He’ll try to find a few different sites and double check by send the information to Pepper. “They’re trying to draw attention to tenant rights because of some ass taking advantage of poor communities…from what I can gather.”

“Is that what you’re looking up right now?” Harley asks, casually licking cinnamon sugar from his fingers.

Peter momentarily gets lost in thought because holy fuck, please lick— “Um, yeah.”

“What are your resources?”

Peter looks down on his phone. He’s doing a quick study (because he does trust MJ’s opinion, and so isn’t going to go too in-depth) but he’s interested in what he’s seeing. “I have a couple websites saved depending on neutral party beliefs, but I also always check CNN and FOX because I like seeing what either heavily influenced side is taking.”

“Nice.” Harley smiles. “Are you going?”

_Ned: whoa!! this dude sucks. i'm there_

_Betty: Me too!_

_Peter: Same_   
_Peter: But like_   
_Peter: Can I bring a friend?_

“Yeah, I am.” Peter can’t look him in the eye because a protest is not a date. “If I do, would you wanna come?”

_Ned: holy shit!! are we!!! finally meeting!!! HARLEY???_

_Peter: Ned stahp_

“Yeah,” Harley agrees. “Do we need to text Pepper?”

_Peter: And yeah_   
_Peter: But you can't say I'm obsessed with him okay_

Peter nods. “Yes. We’ll be gone before she gets back.”

_Peter: MJ_   
_Peter: MJ I need your word_   
_._   
_._   
_._   
_Peter: MJ YOU CANT SAY IM OBSESSED WITH HIM_

_MJ: Ugh fine. Keep your secrets._

_Peter: Thank you._   
_Peter: You guys want rides?_

_MJ: Obviously._

_Betty: Yes, thank you!_

_Ned: That would be appreciated, my liege_

**)-(**

Peter shoves a couple fries in his mouth an hour after the protest was cleared away. Harley shouldn’t find something so gross kind of endearing. "I have, like, actual money now."

"Um," Michelle says with a squint. "Peter, am I going to have to kill you for what is about to come out of your mouth?"

"No!" He rushes out. "I just mean, Tony gives me basically unlimited access. He and Pepper have their philanthropy work, why can't I do my own?"

Ned tilts his head. "Like what?"

"I don't know," he admits. "I'm taking ideas."

"Environmentalism," Betty offers. They tilt their head to consider for a moment. “Wait. _Focused_ environmentalism. So ocean clean up or properly ridding waste.”

"Homeless shelters," Harley says. “Or youth centers for underprivileged teens.”

"Educational programs." Michelle suggests. “Maybe building scholarship funds?”

Ned makes a sound of excitement. "Oh, all of them!"

"I need to do research," Peter decides. He looks slightly overwhelmed. "Do you guys want to go to a library? We could probably sneak in through the roof of one."

"This is how y'all spend Friday nights?" Harley smirks, imagining Peter getting arrested for late-night research. Though, sneaking through stacks of books at night could be fun for other reasons…

“Not always,” Ned shrugs. “I mean, Flash is having a party. We could hit that up.”

“ _Hit that up_?” MJ groans. “Ned, dude, I told you to stop talking like that.”

“I’m serious, we should go." Ned ignores her correction. “There’s always good food and dancing.”

“No beer?” Harley asks.

“Flash is an ‘upstanding American citizen that doesn’t need alcohol to be fun’ and crap. I mean, he’s right, but still.”

“He’s the worst,” Betty agrees.

“Hey,” Harley tugs on Peter’s sleeve. The boy looks at him, Bambi eyes focusing attention solely on Harley and his heart fucking _skips_. “I didn’t mean to imply that I wouldn’t want to break into a library at ten o’clock at night.”

“No, I don’t think anyone took it like that.” Peter’s lip twitches up just so. “We just don’t really do much in the city at night. The party might be fun, though, as long as you’re cool with a party with a bunch of kids from a really nerdy school.”

“If you’re there, I’m happy,” Harley murmured. It was an accident, and he didn’t mean to sound so goddamn whipped, but. Well. Here he is. “I mean—

“We’ll have fun together,” Peter blushes. “I don’t dance, really, but it could still be fun.”

Harley chuckles. “I would love to dance with you, but I guess you’ll just have to enjoy watching me.”

Peter’s blush reaches new levels, even as they leave their booths to pay while Ned runs out to flag a cab. The ride to Flash’s house is spent with Peter pressed against Harley in the backseat, practically in his lap, and Harley barely tracks the conversation. Peter’s hair is tickling his nose and it takes all of his self-control to pull away and not be a creepy dick by burying his face in the brown hair.

Because Peter smells nice.

Which is…unfair.

When they arrive at this kid’s house, its loud and crowded. Harley immediately worries about Peter, wrapping a hand around his wrist and leaning forward to ask if there’s too much going on. Before the words can leave his mouth, some guy is standing in front of Peter with a smug grin on his face.

“Parker,” he sneers. “This your boyfriend?”

Harley looks the kid up and down.. “Is that a problem, man?”

“What?” the guy throws his head back to laugh. “Bro, sexuality is a spectrum and I don’t even know where I land.”

MJ makes a noise of agreement. “Flash will fuck anything with a pulse.”

“Don't degrade my sexuality by making me sound dirty, MJ, that isn't like you!" Flash looks like he's joking and completely serious at the same time. Regardless, he sobers quickly, leaning in close to Harley. “Nah man, what I want to know is what you find so appealing about Parker?”

“Besides everything?”

Flash scoffs. “Name three.”

Harley finds he doesn’t care about vulnerability in the same of making this guy shut up. “He’s got an amazing ass, he’s the smartest person I know, and he’s not an entitled douche who bullies people for no reason. Do you want me to keep going? I have a list.”

Flash stammers. “Well, um—

“Come on,” Harley links his fingers through Peter's. “Wanna dance?”

“Y-Yeah, okay.” Peter follows with red ear. “You didn’t have to do that, you know.”

“I know,” Harley answers. “But I wasn’t lying."

Peter doesn’t seem to have anything to say to that.

The music, Harley begrudgingly realizes, is actually good. Harley easily pulls Peter close, hands on his waist. “Are you sure you don’t want to dance?”

There’s a moment where Harley thinks he’s going to be turned down, but Peter’s eyes flutter prettily up at him. “Actually, I do. With you.”

_Goddamn it, Peter_. He pushes away the flutter of warmth in his chest and tugs Peter into the throng of people. A little ways away, Betty is doing their best to convince Ned to dance, while Michelle leans against the wall, silently surveying the crowd. Everybody is sober, but they’re all dancing and laughing and just enjoying themselves. Harley’s never been part of something like this before.

“Is this good?” he asks Peter, drawing closer so their hips brush and his hands are at Peter’s waist.

“Yeah,” Peter says in his ear. “I don’t know what I’m doing though.”

“Close your eyes, babe. Shut out sight and find something to focus on.”

“You,” Peter breathes. “I-I mean, you’re close and easy to focus on.”

“So do that. You can sense where I am, right? So follow that. I’m moving with the music, you’re moving with me, and…we’re dancing.”

As Harley dances with this boy he’s so messed up for, he knows he’s completely gone.

  
**12:56 AM**

_MJ: I like him, Parker. As a person, and for you. Not that you should base your dating life on my opinion, but still. I like him._

_Betty: Me too Pete! He’s totally in love with you and I LOVE THAT_

_Ned: Harley rocks! He needs to be our new best friend._

_Peter: Thanks guys_

**1:30 AM**

_Peter: I like him too_

**)-(**

“Are you in love with my kid? Not jokingly, or dramatically. Are you actually in love with Peter?”

“Fuck off, Tony.”

“Thought so.”

**)-(**

Peter wakes up to Harley barging through his doors with a grin. “Good mornin’ darlin’.”

He’s laying the accent on thick, and his voice sounds like he just rolled out of bed.

_Fuck my life._

“I want to create glitter particles that will stay in Bucky’s hair. Like, I don’t want him to see it in the shower and be able to wash it off. I want it to be similar to hair dye, but to come out glittery. Maybe the glitter will start to sparkle only after it dries? Something like that. It needs to get there completely undetected. Also, I want it to last for approximately three days.”

Peter looks up at the ceiling and wonders when his life became this.

“Peter?” Harley lays next to him, running a hand down his arm as if he isn’t even thinking about it. “Are you awake? Am I talking to an asleep Peter?”

“I’m awake,” Peter mumbles. He rolls onto his side, surprised when Harley’s cheeks go pink. “What?”

“You sound particularly sexy right now,” Harley says, tone dropping low. He leans to hover slightly over Peter. “ _God_ , you look good.”

Peter worries Harley is going to notice _something else_ that’s awake. He clears his throat and scoots his hips back a bit. “Why are telling me your evil plans, again?”

“Because I need your help with the glitter, Mr. Chemistry.”

Peter sighs because they both know he’ll help Harley. “Bucky is going to kill me.”

“Nonsense.” Harley ducks to kiss his cheek before hopping out of the bed. “You can take him.”

Somehow, Peter thinks he just got played.

Three days later he decides it doesn’t matter. His formula is perfect, and the product has been mixed into the shampoo in Bucky’s bathroom. Harley is thrilled when their target walks into dinner one evening with wet hair, Cap right on his tail.

“They showered together,” Harley says in Peter’s ear. “This is better than I could have dreamed.”

Peter shakes his head and tries to focus on dinner. It’s nearly impossible, though, when Harley has his hand on Peter’s thigh and Cap and Bucky’s hair are both starting to shimmer a little in the light from the window. They get a few odd looks, but nobody says anything until dinner ends and it’s impossible not to notice how completely _sparkly_ Steve and Bucky are. Most of the Avengers are trying to hide their smirks and giggles, covering up their mouths or attempting to look anywhere else. But when sunset casts a glow in the room and Steve and Bucky _light up_ , most of them lose their shit.

“What the—” Bucky cuts himself off as he looks up at Steve, mouth going a little slack. “Steve, doll, you—

“Buck,” Steve croaks, pointing to his boyfriend’s hair.

The table erupts into laughter. No matter how they shake their hair or try to move it, the glitter is imbued in the strands of hair. Peter knows this because he designed it so that the glitter particles would wrap around the strands for a few days. Cap is red and Bucky tries to look furious, but with everyone laughing around them, its hard to not succumb to smiles.

Peter looks over at Harley, who is positively glowing, and feels a fist squeeze around his heart. He’s so beautiful, head tilted back and loose curls bouncing slightly, that Peter’s mind goes blank and he completely misses Bucky swearing his revenge.

**)-(**

“Where are we going?”

“A bar,” Harley answers mildly, tapping his fingers against the wheel as he drives.

Peter frowns at him from the passenger seat. MJ looks impassive as always, but the corner of her mouth twitches up, while Ned looks thrilled and Betty frowns similarly to Peter.

“We don’t have fake IDs,” MJ says practically. “How are going to get in?”

“It’s not that kind of bar, my friend,” Harley feels himself grin despite attempting to look relaxed. “Anybody who looks about high school age can get in, you just have to have an ID to get a bracelet for the bar.”

“And how do you know about this place?” Peter asks.

“It’s entirely possible my source is Sam.”

Peter knows immediately what Harley is doing if his facial expression is anything to go by. “You want to take a bunch of New Yorkers to a... _country bar?_ ”

“A _hoedown_ in a country bar,” Harley corrects.

Betty claps their hands. “Now, this I can get behind.”

“I’m not going in,” MJ insists.

“You are going in.” Ned nods enthusiastically. “And you are all dancing. We’re going to have a good time, bonding as friends.”

“To the sound of George Straight!” Harley whoops. He glances over at Peter, who still looks wary. “Oh, come on, darlin’. If they play a Luke Bryan song, you’ll love the way I look dancing.”

“You’re trying to kill me,” Peter mumbles.

“Just tryna make you fall in love with me, that’s all.”

**)-(**

Peter’s walking to the kitchen for a glass of water later that night. Every time he lets his mind wander, all he can focus on is the memory of line dancing next to Harley. The other boy moves his hips well, every dip and shake perfectly in time to the music. It was fun, of course, laughing and attempting to match Harley’s moves. Even MJ got on the dance floor and made a couple new friends, while Betty and Ned couldn’t stop giggling at each other.

Harley, though. Harley looked _good._ Peter is trying so hard to focus on him as a person, as a friend, but his hormones are going out of control. He likes Harley and wants something more than friendship. He wants to talk to him all night and listen to him laugh, watch him smirk and work in the shop, but…he also wants to wrap himself around Harley for hours on end and do completely inappropriate things.

_Is this what people are always talking about when they say teenagers don’t know what to do with themselves?_

All of this is running through his mind on the way back to his room when Harley leaves the bathroom. His blonde curls are wet, sticking to his forehead and neck, some droplets falling onto bare shoulders. He’s wearing nothing but boxer briefs, a towel in hand and looking somewhat sheepish.

“Forgot my clothes,” he shrugs. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Peter croaks, somehow unable to move. He can’t look Harley in the eye, but he can certainly let his heightened gaze wonder over droplets that run between sinewy muscles like some period piece porn novel. It twists heat into Peter’s lower stomach and makes his mouth water because he could be fast enough to catch all of them, he knows it. The scent of Old Spice has never been so damn arousing.

_Something is happening to me_ , Peter panics. It happens every time he’s around Harley. Even in the littlest ways, the other boy seems to block everything around them out. He survived a party with pulsing lights and bass-heavy music because everything washed away when Harley stepped into his personal space and provided a focal point.

He doesn’t know how to act. He can’t think or breathe.

It’s terrifying.

“Peter?” Harley asks, voice lower than normal. When their gazes meet, its obvious the blonde can feel the heat of his stare. “This really was an accident. I told you I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“You’re not,” he says. _Speak, Peter, speak!_ “I just, i—

He cuts himself off.

“Would you tell me if I was?” Harley steps closer. Peter nods, but he still can’t breathe because its dark, Harley looks more tempting than he ever has, and he needs to leave before he makes a complete ass of himself.

Naturally, he runs away.

**)-(**

“Are you eating?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sleeping?”

“Yes.”

“Is she ever home?”

“Not really. But don’t freak out, I’ve been with Perry almost every night. I’ll text her so she knows where we are.”

Harley purses his lips. “I can come home if I need to.”

“No, Harley,” Abby sighs. “I’m fine, really. I know I’m only thirteen, but I’m not alone. Mrs. Rice is okay with me living here this summer. She feeds me and checks up on me like a good mom.”

“Okay,” Harley says. “I’m sorry, I’m just worried. And I miss you.”

“I miss you too.” Abby sounds sincere. “But I also know that you’re having a great time.”

He doesn’t say anything.

“Peter seems nice.”

“Abby.”

“Oh, come on,” Abby scoffs. “Your instagram, both of y'alls actually, show that you two are so into each other. You’re touching in all your pictures, you’re smiling in all of them _which is totally new_ , and you seem different. Relaxed. Like you’re having a good time.”

Harley pauses, trying to think how to word it. Abby isn’t a romantic, so this has to mean something to her. “I am enjoying myself. Pepper and Tony are good parents as usual. Did you get the clothes Pep sent?”

“I did, and I called her to say thank you.”

“Good. We’ve done a lot of touristy things, but I’ve also gotten some amazing views.”

“This is telling me nothing about Peter.”

"Abby."

"Harley."

“Fine! I think I came on too strong. He ran away from me the other night.”

“How do you know that he wasn’t just nervous?”

“He _literally ran away from me._ He’s been nervous before, but this was something else.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. You scared him off.”

“Dude.”

“What, you didn’t want my positive thoughts.”

“You haven’t given any positive thoughts.”

“Shut up.”

“This conversation is going nowhere.”

“Talk to him.”

“Fine! Bye.”

“Bye."

There'a a pause, where neither of them actually hang up until Abby gently whispers, "I love you, Harley.”

“I love you, too. I'll call you tomorrow.”

Harley hangs up the phone and leaves his room, walking over to Peter’s room. They haven’t seen each other all morning, and he feels nervous, which is ridiculous because he doesn’t get nervous.

He knocks.

Peter comes to the door. He startles when he sees Harley, but gives that smile that’s so painfully adorable he wants to wrap around Peter and never leave. “Hey, Harley.”

“Hey darlin’,” he says lightly. “I was just about to head down to the garage. Steve got kind of jealous of Bucky’s bike, so he wants us to make him his own. You know, if you’re interested.”

“Yeah, of course,” Peter says softly. He fidgets with his hands. “Hey, um, I’m sorry about last night.”

“No, its okay. It was late, we’d been dancing and you were probably really tired, and it makes sense.”

“It’s not that.” Peter is still fidgeting. “I’m sort of extremely attracted to you, and you looked…gorgeous last night. I didn’t want to embarrass myself, but I didn’t know what to do, so I ran off to clear my head.”

Harley swallows. He knows that Peter’s attracted to him. Hearing him say it out loud, however, is something new. He wants to surge forward and lock them in Peter’s room, pull sounds from Peter he couldn’t even imagine and make him feel everything Harley is feeling. He wants Peter so badly his blood fucking sings for it.

But he can’t do that to himself.

He has to _know._

“I get it,” Harley whispers. He resists reaching forward to touch Peter, deciding they might both need a little space. “I’ll see you in the lab?”

Peter nods, looking grateful. “Yeah. Get the glitter canons ready.”

**)-(**

“You want to take him to the Museum of Mathematics?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Honey, that’s not…romantic.”

“Who said anything about romance?”

“Everything about your body language?”

“Mom!”

“Peter!”

He turns around, glaring at Pepper’s delighted grin. “You’re killing me. I am going to die because of this conversation, and you’re going to have to live with that for the rest of your life. Is that something you want on your conscience?”

"You are completely ridiculous,” she laughs. Stepping into the room, his mother tries to smooth down his hair. “Is it so terrible to admit you like him?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m an irrational teenager?”

Pepper purses her lips. “Seriously, Peter. What’s going on?”

“Harley’s…different,” he admits. He turns away from her, pulling at the edges of his button down. “He confuses me, makes it hard to think straight. I get so worked up, I don’t know how to act around him. I know that I like him, but when he’s there I just start to lose sense of everything. It all zeroes in on him.”

Pepper looks concerned, not speaking as she lets Peter talk it out.

“I don’t know what to do with myself, you know? I feel so out of control.”

“That’s to be expected,” she says slowly. “But it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing if you really like him. Harley’s a good kid. And who knows, maybe after some time things will temper. Its bound to be hot and heavy for awhile—

“God help me, please stop talking.”

“Honestly! That’s how it works. Things are new and exciting and intense, but…they temper out. If you’ve never felt something like this before, its natural that it should make you nervous. Just…whenever you’re ready, make a move. Or let him make a move.”

She pauses.

“Just in case this is a date, lose the tie. You’re going to a museum, honey. Just wear…that long sleeve shirt, the white one. It looks good with your new jeans.”

“Shit, you’re right. Wait, its not a date!”

It’s not.

(He still wears what Pepper suggests.)

Ned, Betty, and MJ are coming on the trip. They’re going to tour the MoMath, because its one of Peter’s favorite places in the entire world and he has some inexplicable desire to show Harley all of the things he loves. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be casual. Its going to be a _friendly interaction._ They’re all going to be nerds together, and that’s what matters.

Of course, all being nerds together turns out to be a problem because Harley starts looking at Peter in open, unashamed adoration that makes Peter lose all sense.

It starts off simple. The four of them work their way through interactive exhibits, bouncing arguments for theories off of each other and solving puzzles as fast as they can. Peter will say something he thinks is incredibly obvious, to the same tune of his usual conversations with his school friends, but Harley will blink in shock for a second before plunging in to the argument. His senses are out of control, unable to understand the predatory looks that come from Harley during a debate. Part of him preens under the attention, the other part feels like he’s about to be pounced.

(Peter isn’t sure if being pounced on is a bad thing.)

It escalates when Peter beats Harley in a simulation or solves a puzzle faster.

“I thought I was smart,” Harley says plainly (despite the way he huffed and licked his lips only moments before) when Peter once again trounces him. “But you, Peter, are a fucking genius.”

The other’s move on, but Harley is standing close and touching Peter’s wrist with a shock of electricity. Something in the air hums between them, makes Peter consider very inappropriate things in a public place. Harley opens his mouth to speak again, but snaps it shut and strides away.

It all comes to a head when Peter exits the gift shop to find Harley leaning against the wall of an alcove. “Ned, Betty, and MJ should be out any minute and then we can grab lunch. Does that sound okay?”

“Perfect.” Harley looks tense. “What did you get?”

“Oh yeah, check it out!” Peter grins, stepping closer. He pulls out his new t-shirt and the puzzle collection he’s purchased. “I’m going to wear this to the next nice restaurant we go to, and you’re going to love it. And I also got this puzzle for us to work on over the next few weeks. If you’re into that, I mean. It’s supposed to be really hard, and I know you kind of like a challenge, so we can work on it until we beat it. Together, if you want.”

His senses go off, but they tell him to avoid Harley, who is _Harley,_ so Peter ignores them and looks up in time to be pressed roughly into the wall by the taller boy. Harley is everywhere, blocking out all of Peter’s sense and replacing them with himself.

The only _sounds_ are Harley’s lungs expanding and his heart beating. The only _sight_ that Peter can focus on is the way Harley’s eyes are so zeroed in. He can only _smell_ Harley’s soap and the cinnamon from his breakfast, and the only _touch_ that matters one fucking bit is the grip Harley has on his hips, or the breath ghosting across his cheek.

“Stop me, Peter,” Harley croaks, pressing closer. “Tell me if—

Peter cuts him off by pressing his lips against him, body rising up. He shudders because Harley moans into it, a filthy sound even to Peter’s inexperienced ears. He wants to revel in everything at once—cream cheese icing on Harley’s tongue, the softness of Harley’s curls as he tugs on them for leverage, the way Harley’s heat is pressed everywhere along him so that its somehow oppressive and comforting, Harley’s gasp as Peter nips at his bottom lip, just… _Harley, Harley, Harley._

“Fuck,” Harley gasps, breaking the kiss to mouth along Peter’s jaw and neck. “The things I want to do to you, Peter. You’re a goddamn test to my patience if I’ve ever had one.”

Peter whimpers at the teeth snagging his earlobe. He’s feeling so many things he knows he’s going to burst from the inside out if he keeps this up. Despite that, he needs more, this isn’t enough, Harley just woke something up—

“I gotta stop.” Harley’s words are contrasted with how his hands creep under Peter’s shirt. “We’re not there yet, and I’m going to want to be if I don’t stop.”

“Stop?” Peter feels his eyebrows scrunch together. “Harley, I want…”

His phone rings, and the moment is ruined. 


	4. nobody is afraid of heights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He looks at the boy next to him, reaching out to brush curls from his head.
> 
> Harley doesn’t just want to sleep with me, he realizes with a jolt.
> 
> Harley likes Peter.
> 
> Harley cares about Peter.  
> ***  
> Or, Harley is in love and Peter is beginning to understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The continued response is so heartwarming. Thank you guys, SO MUCH, for your love and encouragement. <3 I love you all.

 The rest of the day, Harley is back to his normal self, if not a little more affectionate. His fingertips trace the lines of Peter’s hands under the table at lunch, and he shows no reservations about snuggling up to Peter while watching a movie. He’s everywhere, and Peter can’t stop thinking about the kiss. He’s looking forward to when Tony and Pepper go to bed so that they can talk (or do anything but).

Instead, Harley is the first one to leave after the credits roll. The lights are still dark, and Harley’s lips ghost against Peter’s jaw. Hands squeeze his hips before Harley gets up and stretches. “I’m beat after today, so I think I’ll head to bed.”

Peter watches in increasing frustration as Harley kisses Pepper’s cheek and punches Tony’s shoulder before wondering out of the room. He’s spent the entire day so sure that Harley was as wrecked by the kiss as he was. Did Peter imagine the shaky breaths, the promise of what he could do to Peter, how he was trying to hold back?

For that matter, _why_ is he trying to hold back? Does he like teasing Peter? Is that what gets him off, the teasing? Knowing how much Peter wants him?

Ever the scientist, Peter is going to solve the mystery. He makes a short list of questions he wants answered first.

_Number One: Is Harley attracted to Peter?_

_(Answer: Yes; Harley shows physical signs of arousal when in close proximity to Peter, particularly during The Kiss.)_

_Number Two: Why does Harley feel the need to have self-control around Peter?_

_Number Three: What does Peter have to do to break that self-control?_

With his plan in place, Peter settles into bed with a plan. _Operation: Seduce Harley Keener_ begins the next morning.

**)-(**

The next day, when Harley comes in to lay his head in Peter’s lap while he plays video games, Peter turns off the console.

“You don’t want to play?” Harley asks in confusion.

“Nah,” Peter smiles. He settles back into the cushions and threads a hand into Harley’s curls. “Just thought of something better to do with my hands. FRIDAY, play _A New Hope_ on my TV, please.”

As the movie plays, Harley’s eyes lose focus due to Peter lightly scratching his scalp or tugging on the soft strands of hair. Its nice to watch Harley’s eyes drift shut. There’s even one memorable moment where Peter lets his fingertips drift down lightly graze the curve of Harley’s lips and the blonde’s eyes flutter shut.

He remains more content than close to losing control, so Peter pushes his luck and leans down to kiss Harley. It’s soft, barely noticeable, but they both shiver at the contact.

He sits up and focuses back on Luke Skywalker, forming the next step in his plan.

**)-(**

“Steve, I’m tired,” Peter admits, panting. He never gets this tired during a workout, another reason he knows its smart to train with another man who shares enhanced strength.

“One more time,” Steve says. “And then you head for the showers.”

Peter nods, defensive position taken up. “Okay. I can do this.”

“You can do this.”

And he does fairly well, getting in a few flips over Cap and blocking the moves to use for his advantage instead of just evading them. It’s when he suddenly feels eyes on him that he knows someone else has walked in. He can feel the hair rise on his neck, the excitement that washes over him. it’s the same experience every time Harley walks into a room.

“Don’t lose focus, Peter,” Steve whispers, most likely not audible to anyone else. “Just because he’s here.”

“Right,” Peter says. “Focus.”

And, miraculously, he ends up with Captain America on his stomach, Peter’s knee pressed into his back. He lets out a whoop of excitement. “FRIDAY, send the footage of me tossing Cap on the ground to Dad.”

“Of course, Young Boss.”

Peter lets himself turn to face Harley, who’s leaning against the entrance to the locker room with his lips slightly parted and his cheeks red. Peter decides to actually test his restraint.

“Hey,” he jogs over to Harley, stripping off his shirt in a stroke determination. “How was training with Clint?”

“Good,” Harley says, eyeing Peter.

Peter waits for him to say something else.

Harley doesn’t speak.

“Good,” Peter repeats. “Alright. Are you doing well with marksmanship?”

“Yep.”

“Cool.” Peter walks backwards towards the locker room door. He licks his lips and eyes Harley’s bare chest. “If you wanna, I don’t know, come in here and keep talking…?”

They’re kissing the second the door shuts. Peter takes charge this time, cupping Harley’s face and pulling him close. He falls into that mode he always defaults to around Harley. Other senses start falling away. Peter wants to remain cocky, sure of himself, but its so distracting he isn’t sure that he can.

“Do you know, Peter?” Harley’s voice is tight, hands sliding down to find Peter’s ass. He kneads the muscle there, making Peter arch into him. “Do you know what you look like?”

And that invigorates Peter. He ducks his head to kiss along Harley’s collarbone, worrying a bruise into the skin there. He’s almost shaking from how he’s holding back, not wanting to hurt the boy he’s craving so badly. “I’d know if you told me. You seem like you’d tell me. Would you, Harley? Talk for me?”

Peter has no clue where that comes from, but it apparently makes Harley push a knee in-between Peter’s (willingly opened) thighs.

“I would,” Harley says. Peter bites his pulse point, eliciting a jolt of hips. “Darlin’, I’d tell you how good you make me feel, how hot you look dominating that gym and flipping _Captain America onto the ground_. What your muscles look like, the focus of your eyes, the sweat—God save me, _the sweat_. We’re gonna be so good together.”

Peter thinks he has victory, but Harley practically dumps cold water on him with a, “But we’re not there yet.”

Peter shakily backs off and asks for a minute to change.

**)-(**

Peter has another nightmare.

Harley wakes him up again, hands rubbing soothing circles into his back and whispering assurances of safety as he finds control over his breathing. Phrases like “Everyone is safe, sweetheart” and “I’ve got you” filter through to Peter until he’s pressing into Harley’s side.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Harley asks.

“I just need…” Peter uses his fingers to seek out Harley’s pulse point on his neck. Between the swell of his chest with each breath and the beat of Harley’s heart, Peter calms down. How is he supposed to tell Harley that he’s joined the others in Peter’s nightmares? That Peter is frightened of whatever control Harley has over him because this is so intense and the people he cares about get _hurt._

_Things aren’t like that anymore_ , Peter thinks.  _I don’t kill people. It’s not my fault._

He’s going to have to start sessions with Sam again.

“Hey, I don’t know whats going on, but I’m right here,” Harley says softly. “We’re good.”

Peter nods. “I’m sorry to ask, but would you mind staying? Just for a while?”

“As long as you need.” Harley kisses Peter’s cheek. “Wanna watch Star Trek?”

“Yes,” he answers. “And you can…stay close. If you want.”

When he wakes up the next morning, he thinks of the way Harley came to his room to wake him up, of how he soothed him away from a panic, and cuddled with him all night. With only a kiss to his cheek.

He looks at the boy next to him, reaching out to brush curls from his head.

_Harley doesn’t just want to sleep with me,_ he realizes with a jolt.

Harley likes Peter.

Harley _cares_ about Peter.

The thought sends something buzzing through Peter’s bones. He hasn’t figured out why Harley is holding back, what bridge he thinks needs to be crossed, but he’s going to break it. It makes sense now, why Harley has such an effect on Peter. It isn’t just about being physically attracted to him, its his emotions taking over his brain and mingling with his attraction to roll into a single mass of _want._ He wants Harley Keener.

And he’s pretty damn sure Harley Keener wants him.

**)-(**

When Peter tells his parents his nightmares are happening too often now, Pepper and Tony are openly curious.

“Is there a reason, do you think?” Tony asks gently.

“It happened a bit when Ned and I got closer to Betty and MJ,” Peter answers. His hands twist together. “I, um, I really like Harley, and I think my brain is doing that thing where it thinks people close to me get hurt? So.”

“Okay,” Pepper says. She kisses Peter’s forehead. “We’ll talk to Sam, then. Get you meeting again for a bit?”

He doesn’t miss the look of worry his parents share, but they both hug him and tell him they love him.

**)-(**

_“I don’t understand what he’s holding back.”_

_“Did you ever consider that Harley might be waiting to know you’re invested in him?”_

_“How can he not know?”_

_“Sometimes, people need assurance when they’ve been through something. I can’t tell you anything about Harley because he and I don’t really talk, but I’d be willing to bet that his relationship with his parents and his isolation back home make it difficult for him to believe some real attachments.”_

_“So I just have to…show him? How much I like him?”_

_“Maybe. Now, can we talk about how much you like him and why that scares you?”_

Peter thinks back on the conversation as he works beside Tony. They’re listening to Motley Crew at the moment, almost done with the finishing touches on Clint’s new arrows. Peter’s designed a temporary paralytic to fuse to the arrowheads, so they’re very cautious as they work. It’s nice, until Tony calls for FRIDAY to turn down the music.

Peter frowns. “Everything okay?”

“I was about to ask you that very question,” Tony chirps. He slides the arrowhead into a compartment in one of Clint’s quivers. “You seemed distracted.”

“I’m fine.”

“Talk to me, kid, whats happening?”

“Well,” Peter huffs. He can never keep anything to himself for long. “I’m trying to think of something to do for Harley. Something nice, like a gift.”

“His birthday was in April,” Tony comments. “What’s the special occasion?”

“There’s no special occasion, exactly,” he says. “Just…I want to do something nice. Personal.”

Tony sets down the arrow and peels off the gloves. Turning to face Peter, he sets his chin in his hand. “You like him. A lot.”

“I do,” Peter admits. He looks down at his hands. “Is that okay?”

“Of course,” Tony says quickly. “It’s been clear for awhile that you like each other, but I wasn’t sure what the extent of it was in your head. You’re kind of hard to get a read on sometimes, kid.”

“I’m an open book.”

“But you rarely make a move.”

Okay, so…that’s fair.

“And this is me trying to make a move,” Peter counters. “I need your help, Dad. What do I do to show him that I like him?”

“I don’t know,” Tony hums. “He’s a mechanic. He feels connected to technology, like it understands him more than people do.”

“He doesn’t really have friends in Tennessee,” Peter notes. A thought filters through his head and he perks up. “That’s it. A friend in technology.”

Tony smacks his thigh. “Yes! Exactly. Want me to show you how to do it?”

Peter nods eagerly as Tony pulls a screen closer and starts talking. This is definitely going to work.

**)-(**

Harley is daydreaming about Peter in his swimsuit the day before, thinking about how it felt to pull the other boy close in the water, when the object of his affection appears in his doorway.

“Hey, Harls,” Peter says softly. He looks nervous. “You have a sec?”

_Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it_ — “For you? Always.”

_Dumbass._

Peter laughs, despite how stupid it was, and comes into the room. He’s holding Harley’s cell phone (so thats where it went!), more fidgety than usual. “So, I made you something. If you think its totally stupid, I won’t be offended, but I thought you could have this when you went back to Tennessee. It’s, um, well—here, open it.”

Harley scoots to the edge of his bed and takes the cell phone. It’s obviously been upgraded, but seems otherwise unbothered. Harley is about to ask what’s changed when he taps the screen and his phone speaks. “Good evening, Mr. Keener.”

“What?!” Harley exclaims. He looks at Peter, who’s smiling now. “Is this…?”

“You own AI? Yes.” Peter sits next to him. “Her name is Bekah. There’s no fancy abbreviation, just the name of—

“My childhood best friend.” Harley finishes in awe. Peter remembers that story.

“So, Bekah can do all the things that FRIDAY and Karen can. She’s like Karen’s sister, and they both sort of answer to FRIDAY. That’s how they’re coded. And she’s linked to your car, which Tony and I may or may not have tampered with a little bit. From there, you can upload anywhere you like, really. Maybe on your laptop and Starkpad?”

Harley is truly speechless. He holds his phone in his hand loosely, staring at Peter’s obvious pride and excitement. Peter made him an AI. He enlisted the help of Tony, made an AI and put him in all of his technology.

“You know, so when you go back to Tennessee, you have a piece of everything here, and someone to talk to and help you with your projects. I programmed her to be a little sassy the way you like, so don’t be mean to her unless you want some spite. Tony helped with that, obviously.”

“Peter,” Harley whispers. “This is…this is _amazing_. I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Don’t use it for world domination?”

Harley barks out a laugh. “No promises, darlin’.”

He tugs Peter by the collar of his shirt until they’re kissing. His phone slides to the side as the other boy eases onto his lap, the both of them falling back onto pillows. It feels too good to have Peter on him, against him, those hands in his hair and teeth tugging at his bottom lip. God, Harley loves him. He could list all the things about Peter that he likes, but at the end of the day he just pulls back to look at the other boy and feels his heart stutter.

_I love him._

“Wanna stay and watch a movie?” Harley asks breathlessly, scared they’ll push too far. “Just for a bit.”

Something odd flashes across Peter’s face, but he smooths it over with a swallow and quick nod.

Harley’s hand touches the flush across his cheeks. “Thank you, Peter.”

“Anytime.”

**)-(**

Peter lays next to Harley while they watch a movie, holding back his frown.

_I have to step it up._

**)-(**

Harley is about at the end of his rope.

_Don’t fuck him until you know he has feelings for you_ , he reminds himself, watching Peter as he writes out a formula for new web fluid. His tongue sticks out of his mouth and his eyebrows become one because of the intensity of focus, and Harley just wants a million things from this boy.

_Don’t fuck him until you know he has feelings for you_ , he thinks when Peter tries to make him dinner one night and completely burns everything he touches. He looks so upset that Harley promises him his company is all that he wants. That makes Peter very appreciative.

_Don’t fuck him until you know he has feelings for you_ , he mentally chants when he and Peter make out on the couch, _Back to the Future_ fading into background noise. Peter hikes a leg around Harley and licks into his mouth. It’s impossible not to roll his hips. The result is Peter hissing at the friction and clawing at Harley’s back. Its so hard to pull away.

_Don’t fuck him until you know he has feelings for you_ , he pleads with himself when Peter uses his thumb to get candy apple off of Harley’s cheeks and proceeds to suck the red sugar of his own thumb. He thinks its an innocent action until he realizes Peter is making eye contact, licking his thumb like it’s something much more personal to Harley while somehow not looking crude in public. He has to think about a million grandmas before he can get up from the table.

“You know, you could always _ask_ him if he has feelings for you,” MJ offers the evening of the Candy Apple Incident. They’re sitting and waiting for Ned and Peter to be done on one of the many roller coasters at Luna Park. “Instead of looking at him like he’s God’s gift to earth.”

Harley feigns confusion. “Isn’t he, though?”

“Loser.” MJ rolls her eyes, but affection is clear. “Why don’t you? Say something, I mean.”

“Because I need to be sure. I am _invested_. If he doesn’t want me in the same way, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“And how do you want him?”

“I want him for _everything_ , MJ.”

MJ gags, and Harley laughs.

**)-(**

Seriously, Harley’s emotional and sexual resistance is shit.

One morning after Peter has a nightmare, the two boys stay in Peter’s bed longer than necessary. Peter looks contemplative, almost confused, as he sprawls across Harley’s chest and dances his fingertips across the bare skin there.

“Thank you,” he whispers. “For being there for me.”

“Anytime,” Harley says sincerely. He doesn’t bother trying to be smooth or flirty, just tightens his arms around Peter. “Seriously, baby, whenever you need me.”

Maybe the way he says “baby” shows a little too much vulnerability, but Peter seems to like it, as he straddles Harley and presses close, kissing him with more tenderness than anything they’ve shared.

“You need to get back to your room before Pepper wakes up,” Peter whispers. “And I have to go into the city with Tony for a few hours, but I’ll see you at the gala. Are you still going?”

Harley nods. He’s trying to regain some control of himself, despite how much he wants to pull Peter under him and spend hours behind a locked door. “I’ve got my dancing shoes and everything.”

“Awesome. See you tonight.”

The thought that Peter is getting dressed up does _absolutely nothing_ to prepare Harley for the end result.

When Harley and Pepper’s car pulls up to the SI charity gala, Tony and Peter are already seen at the entrance. Peter stands before the cameras looking like the million bucks he’s actually worth. The press eat it up, the seventeen year old, adopted, genius, heir to the empire, who wears a fitted black tux that makes him look much sexier than any underage kid has any right to be. His smile is shy, but open as he lifts a hand to the paparazzi until Tony helps Pepper out of the limo and the attention is shifted.

Peter ducks his head towards the limo, offering Harley his hand. “Walk in with me?”

“They’re going to take that as an implication of something." Harley nods toward the press, hoping Peter understands.

Peter’s smile tells Harley that Peter understands very well.

The paps lose their minds when Peter pulls Harley along by linked hands. Lights flash as the two stand close together, smiling at each other in a way that can only mean one thing. Harley wonders if this is Peter’s way of offering something more than sneaking around to make out and testing each other’s resistance. Harley wants it, and he thinks Peter does to—if the blush and blinding smile is anything to go by.

So, Harley leans down to whisper in Peter’s ear. “You trying to ask me something, Stark?”

He knows Peter is blushing and slightly stammering, and the press lose their minds even more. Harley and Peter wave at the cameras once more before striding into the gala, hand-in-hand, meeting up with Pepper and Tony. The rest of the night goes smoothly, Harley and Peter eating, dancing, and laughing. Harley meets some admissions staff from MIT, as well as the chief engineer at the Boeing plant in New York. He can’t believe that ten years ago, he was just a kid from a small town, watching Iron Man reveal his identity to the world. Now, he’s standing here, half-in love and making real connections for a future.

Tony Stark breaking into his garage was the best thing that could have happened to him.

Later, after having danced and talked until he was completely exhausted by the sheer amount of people around him, Harley finds Peter and drags him to the gardens in the courtyard of the building. The other boy giggles as they sneak away. This evening has been nearly perfect, but they haven’t shared one kiss and that’s definitely some sort of crime.

“You look so good, Peter,” Harley breathes, pulling Peter into an alcove filled with flowers. There are twinkle lights all around, giving a warm glow to match the humid New York night. “It’s killing me.”

“Me?” Peter scoffs. He slides his hands into Harley’s open jacket. “You look like sex in a suit, Harley, my brain short circuited when I saw you.”

Harley shakes his head and leans in. Kissing Peter is better than swinging through Manhattan, sitting atop the Brooklyn Bridge, eating the most delicious food, or spending time with Tony Stark. The boy in his arms, lips moving against his in a leisurely kiss, makes Harley feel so fucking incredible. They’re just kids, but surely, _surely,_ this is true love. The comfort, the sense of wanting to stay forever, the way his mind can only focus on Peter.

Its almost too much.

Its not enough.

Peter tastes like the champagne they’ve manage to sneak a few glasses of. Its not Harley’s preferred beverage, but having it invade his senses because Peter’s tongue is sliding across his bottom lip makes it taste like ambrosia. He pulls Peter closer, letting their bodies slot against one another and parting his lips to deepen the kiss. It almost electrocutes him.

“My senses,” Peter whimpers into the kiss, fingers tightening around Harley’s back. “When I’m with you, they drive me crazy. I can’t focus on anything but you, because you’re _everywhere._ ”

Harley can’t imagine whats that like; he’s already overwhelmed by what he feels when he’s with Peter. The thought of all of that being dialed up to eleven would make him unable to breathe.

“So, when I get you worked up,” Harley says slowly. “Is that…painful to you?”

“No, not painful, exactly, just…intense. Sometimes overwhelming.”

Harley feels like a jerk. “I’m so sorry, baby, I didn’t realize it would be like that.”

“Its okay,” Peter chuckles. He leans into Harley’s neck and nips at the skin. “I wouldn’t want you to do something if you’re not ready, so every time we stopped…I understood, even if I didn’t understand why.”

“That makes no sense.”

“I know.”

Their lips find each other again. Peter pulls Harley close. Harley is feeling young and in love and not caring about literally anything else. He’s going to do it, tell Peter how much he wants and ask if he wants the same thing. Tonight. They’re going to be together tonight.

Peter jerks back suddenly, tense and eyes wide. “Shit, Harley—

He’s cut off by a quiet thud and something tiny embedding in his throat. Harley watches him fall with barely registered panic before he hears a shuffle and then something hard hits him over the head.

It only takes seconds to black out completely.

**)-(**

When Peter wakes up, he’s groggy. He can’t move his limbs as quickly as he needs to, can’t fully open his eyes. His senses are screaming, working overtime to understand _where, what, why_ , but there’s too much around him at once.

“Peter?” a voice calls. “Come on, baby, open your eyes. It’s okay, I’m here.”

_Safe_ , Peter’s blood sings. _Warm. Safe. Love._

He opens his eyes and looks up at Harley, who gives him a true smile. “Took you long enough.”

“Sorry,” he mumbles. He takes in his position, noting how he’s got his head on Harley’s chest and his legs sprawled away, as if Harley has dragged his body into his lap. “I feel wrong.”

“One of the buffoons mentioned a horse tranquilizer. They meant to use a regular one, but someone got confused and you got hit with a crazy high dose. I think they thought you were dead for a minute.”

Peter lifts his head, an exhausting effort, and observes their surroundings. He almost laughs at the fact that they’re in a padded cell. “What the actual hell?”

“Yeah, this is a weird situation. I don’t know why they took us or where we are, but I’ve seen two men and one woman. She is definitely in charge, and hit the dude who shot you with a horse tranq. She’s the one who hit me, because she _had to do everything herself._ Apparently."

“How long do you think until they come back?”

“Probably won’t be long now. They came in right after I woke up.”

“Well, we shouldn’t be here long. Tony will show up soon.”

“How do you know he’ll find us so quickly?”

“Happy’s been paranoid since the adoption,” Peter explains. “So, he presented a list of back up plans for Pepper and me during big events like these. He’s always got eyes on me through these cufflinks. No audio or anything, but they monitor my heart rate and act as a tracking device.”

“And to speed up the process, can Spider-Man make an appearance?”

“Not right now,” he huffs. “Until my metabolism completely takes care of the tranquilizer, I’m not going to be of much use.”

Tired from the effort its taking to try and lift his body, Peter curls back into Harley. “I’m sorry. I got so caught up in you that the danger broke through too late. Now you’re in harms way because of me.”

“Don’t apologize.” Harley kisses his forehead. “It’s not your fault, and I’ll beat your ass if you say so again. I pulled us out into the garden. I decided we needed to have a moment, lost in each other in a strange place. That’s on me.”

“I’m the superhero.”

“And I’m such a phenomenal kisser that you lose track of everything else. Oh, to carry such _power._ ”

“I can’t imagine,” Peter giggles, helpless despite the situation. He pauses before twisting his hands into Harley’s suit jacket. “Damn it, Harley. Tonight was supposed to be completely different.”

“You’re telling me,” the blonde sighs. “I had a whole plan, to confess that I wanted to marry you and have your babies, and that’s why I wouldn’t sleep with you yet.”

Peter ignores the dramatics of the declaration and jerks his head back. “I’m sorry, what? You wouldn’t sleep with me… _because_ you like me?”

“Yes.” Harley is looking at him like it makes perfect sense. “I mean, I wanted you the minute I saw you, Peter. So badly that I didn’t know what to do with myself. And you were obviously interested, but I didn’t come here to fuck Tony’s kid and then leave a few weeks later. I wanted to know you, be with you, and I wanted you to want the same thing.”

“Why didn’t you just ask me that?” Peter frowns. He thinks about all the flirting, the restrained way Harley always broke away from kisses and how pained he always looked when Peter tried to test his willpower. “I like you, as a person. I want to take you to the movies and dinner and on a cheesy boat ride in Central Park. I want to date you.”

“There’s a lot at stake here,” Harley speaks softly, almost seeming scared. “I love Tony. He’s not really like a dad to me, but he’s something, and I don’t want to lose him. I like New York, Stark Industries, your friendship. I like not being rejected.”

_Rejected?_ Peter thinks incredulously. “That’s, like, impossible.”

“I needed to make sure you actually liked me, Peter,” Harley presses on. “For more than just some fling, even if I wanted to jump you the second I saw you. I needed to know, without the possibility of revealing myself and you turning me down.”

“Is it because of your dad?” Peter looks up to see Harley frowning at him. “You act like things are casual or don’t matter, or just physical for us, and you keep saying you ‘needed’ to know. Is it because of your dad leaving that you have to know where we stand so clearly?”

Harley tilts his head. “I mean, I guess. I thought my dad loved me, and then he left. I was blindsided. My mom also says I think I know everything, so I tend to make sure I’m right before proceeding.”

“Checks out.”

“Ass.”

There’s a lull in which Peter contemplates what Harley’s told him. He feels strong enough now to push a little higher, pressing his lips to the other boy’s jaw. “I like you, Harley, so much I don’t know what to do about it. You make me feel out of control of my own body. It’s kind of freaky.”

Harley waits.

“But I’m also kind of into it? So, if you’re definitely into me as a human being and a potential sexual partner, I wouldn’t hate calling you my boyfriend.”

“And when I go back to Tennessee?”

“I’ll come visit, and you’ll come visit me. And…we’ll play it by ear. I’m good at figuring things out.”

Harley kisses Peter then, smiling against their lips in a way that has Peter laughing quietly. “Fuck, Peter, yes.”

“Cool.”

“ _Cool?_ ”

“Yeah, cool. Maybe even awesome.”

“God, you’re such a dork.”

They lean in to share another kiss when Peter hears the sound of a lock opening. An exit appears in the padded wall, and a woman about Pepper’s age strides in. She’s wearing jeans and a t-shirt, looking like some normal mom picking up her kids from soccer practice. Two men follow behind her, one with a nasty bruise forming around his eye.

“Alright, Stark. Time to say hello to mommy and daddy.”

Peter panics as the smaller of the two men comes over to roughly grab him. The bigger dude hauls Harley to his feet. “What have you done to my parents?”

“Nothing, honey,” the woman smiles. “We’re gonna have you send a little message to them is all.”

Ah, Peter realizes. _She wants money._

“Holy shit,” Harley groans. “Could you be more of a stereotype? The Starks have a kid now, so you want to exploit them for money?”

“They can share a little bit of what they’ve got, punk.”

“Punk? _Jesus Christ_.”

“You know, I don’t need you kid,” the woman snaps. She flicks her black braid over her shoulder. “I only need your boyfriend.”

Peter ignores the thrill of that and instead feels the terror at the fact that they consider Harley disposable. “You don’t understand what Harley means to Tony, then. He isn’t in New York because of me, he’s here because Tony cares about him.”

The woman looks contemplative. “Okay. We won’t hurt him for now. But if he pushes…”

“Like you’ll actually get away with anything, dumbass.”

“ _Har_ ley!”

The hallway they’ve been walking down only has a couple doors, one of which they’re shoved through to find a mess of wires, three computers, a light Peter is pretty sure is normally used by photographers, and two chairs. Harley and Peter are placed into those chairs, zipties keeping their hands locked behind their backs. Propped between two of the computers is Peter’s phone, camera faced towards them.

“You’ve been missing for some time,” she explains. “So I’m thinking using your Instagram live will catch some attention, right? Plenty of people following Tony and Pepper Stark’s kid.”

“And when Tony tracks his phone?” Harley snarks.

“We prepared for that.” One of the goons motions towards an antenna that’s blinking green. “It’s currently bouncing all over the country. They don’t have a clue where you are.”

Fuck, Peter thinks. He can feel the tranquilizer wearing off, but not quickly enough. I need my powers.

“This won’t work,” he says gently, hoping his panic isn’t visible. “You can let us go and nobody will get in trouble.”

“Or I can get half a million dollars. Word on the street is that Tony and Pepper Stark loves their kid more than anything else in the world. I don’t think it’ll surprise anybody.”

_Pepper_ , he thinks painfully. The same Pepper who waits for him to come back from patrol with shaky hands and a bone-crushing hug every night. She hates what he does, what his dad does, but she doesn’t ask them to stop. He knows she’s scared of losing him. In his assurance that Tony will be there any second, he forgot that his disappearance itself was going to hurt her.

_I’m sorry, Mom._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm maywildflowers on tumblr. hit me up for a trash can of my faves


	5. send a shiver through my soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Pepper Stark loves her son,” the person in the mask sings. “How much will it cost to get him and his little boyfriend back? You and your husband have so many resources, don’t you?”
> 
> “Peter,” Tony croaks. He raises a hand toward the screen as if he can touch him. “She has them both.”
> 
> “So, if you don’t meet my guys at the fountain by the Central Park boathouse with half a million in thirty minutes, well…”
> 
> She reaches behind her, revealing a hand gun. Pepper feels a sob lodge in her throat as the gun presses against her son’s temple. 
> 
> “Thirty minutes, Starks. Or you don’t see your boy again.”  
> ***  
> Or, Peter being held for ransom is something nobody likes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Literally over here crying at how supportive you guys are. Thank you!! <3

Pepper has dealt with a lot over the years. Coming from a bad home situation, to LA, to Tony, to dealing with Stane and the Avengers and running a company. She's lost the boy she loved like a son, and gotten him back. She's organized a funeral for her best friend. There's a long list of shit she's gone through.

Nothing feels like _this._

Pepper loved Peter before, has always loved him. Since the adoption, however, its grown into something she could never imagine. Peter is her son, her _boy_. The most they’ve been separated since he came to live with them is when she goes on a business trip; even then, she thinks about getting back. After everything they’ve been through, she feels entitled to simply needing to know her child is safe.

Knowing he's not safe is someone reaching into her chest and squeezing her lungs.

Pepper is dancing with Tony, the both of them sneaking glances at Peter and Harley swaying together and whispering like they’re the only two people in the room. “Harley loves him, doesn’t he?”

“Without a doubt,” Tony answers. He tilts his head. “And it still makes me a little nervous.”

“Right?” Pepper feels relieved she isn’t the only one. “Still intense. Harley looks like Peter put the fucking sun in the sky.”

“Doesn’t everyone, though? I mean, have we ever met anyone who doesn’t truly love Peter?”

“The difference is how Peter's reacting. He's never been this way with anyone.”

Tony purses his lips. “It might mellow out when they aren’t horny teenagers trying to grope each other in every corner they can manage. Maybe when they get out of the honeymoon phase or whatever, it will seem more normal.”

Pepper hums thoughtfully as she watches Harley pull Peter along the edge of the ballroom. They're headed for the doors at the back. “I suppose.”

“You know,” Tony whispers. He leans close and his beard tickles her cheek. “We spend a lot of time talking about our son. Are we becoming an old married couple?”

“I certainly hope not.”

“Well, Mrs. Stark, let me explain to you how I intend to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Pepper is flushed and ready to find her own private area with her husband when he stiffens. She pulls back to look at his face and finds his mouth set in a hard line. “Tony?”

“Happy looks upset. Something’s wrong.”

“Peter,” she whispers, looking up at Tony. “We need to go get the boys.”

He nods, settling a hand on her lower back. They move across the dance floor, trying not to rush and draw attention to themselves. Still, they ease out of the door Peter and Harley disappeared through to find an empty courtyard.

“Pete!” Tony calls. “There’s a problem, buddy, where are you at?”

No answer.

Pepper walks deeper into the courtyard. There, between two pillars, is weird light on the ground. She walks to it and crouches down, finding a phone. The background shows Peter and Harley at Coney Island, Harley’s arm around Peter’s shoulder and the both grinning like they’ve never been happier. She knows that its Harley’s phone.

_No. No, no, no._

“Tony, call Peter,” she says thickly, hands shaking. There’s the sound of Tony rustling before he curses swiftly. “Bekah, what’s happening? Where are the boys?”

Harley's AI responds instantly. “Mr. Hogan’s heart monitor on Peter showed that his heart rate dropped dangerously low ten minutes ago. He has the building on lockdown while they search for Peter and Harley, but neither has been found.”

Pepper sinks lower into the stone. “No, Tony, this can’t be…”

She can’t breathe. Not Peter, not her son. She knows what its like to lose him, and she can’t do it now. Not after everything.

Happy bursts through the doors. “Tony. I-I can’t find them. We’ve got people scouring the area, but whoever took them killed some of our men and ran off with the boys. The tracker isn’t working, either, FRIDAY said something is blocking it.”

Pepper covers her mouth and squeezes her eyes shut against the tears.

Nothing feels like this.

“We’re going to get back to the house, I’ve already called the Avengers.”

“I’m going to go find him—

“Tony, you can’t just run off.”

“I don’t care, I want my kid.”

“You’re no help if you can’t get your head straight, you’re too worked up!”

“I am going to find my kid, Happy.”

"Tony-"

"I don't have time for this-"

“ _Tony!_ Take care of your wife.”

Pepper looks up, and Tony finally seems to register her fear. She sees the panic across his face, the desperation in the clenching of his fists, and wonders if she looks as scared as he does. Standing shakily, she reaches for him. “Let’s get back to penthouse and make a plan, Tony. We-We-We have to think on this. We _cannot_ mess it up.”

“When rich people’s kids go missing, its most often for money,” Happy says slowly. “I think we have a little time to make a plan.”

Tony doesn’t say anything else. He nods quickly and offers his hand to Pepper. “Let’s go.”

Over thirty minutes later, she’s sitting in her living room with Tony, teary-eyed and physically ill with worry. The FBI and Avengers are all around them. Happy is barking orders and Tony is as still as she is.

“We’re going to find them, Pepper,” Steve is saying, crouched in front of them. “FRIDAY is meeting a little resistance on the tracking, but Clint is working with her to hack through it. We’ll find them.”

Pepper doesn’t respond because Steve is the last person she wants to talk to. Tony shoots to his feet. “It’s been over half an hour. I’m going to go find him. Waiting here isn’t doing anything.”

“Are you going to scan the entire island?” Rhodey snaps. “Tony, let FRIDAY—

“Do what, Rhodey? My kid is gone, I have to find him. I jumped through time and brought Peter back from the dead, do you think I’m going to just sit on my ass because somebody snatched him?”

Amidst all the yelling, Pepper’s phone dings. She picks it up to silence it, but feels her heart stutter at the notification.

_@peterstarkconfirmed has gone live!_

“Tony!” Pepper cries out, shocked by her own sob. Her husband stops arguing with Rhodey to turn at her outcry. “FRIDAY, display Peter’s Instagram story!”

Everyone around them hushes as FRIDAY casts the feed on to the TV. Tony makes a strangled noise at seeing Peter and Harley tied to chairs. There’s harsh lighting on them, and Peter’s eyes are a little glazed, as if he’s groggy. Their mouths are duct-taped shut.

He looks scared.

She and Tony press closer to the TV as someone in a mask crosses in front of the view. The voice that speaks sounds feminine.

“Pepper Stark loves her son,” the person sings. “How much will it cost to get him and his little boyfriend back? You and your husband have so many resources, don’t you?”

“Peter,” Tony croaks. He reaches a hand toward the screen as if he can touch him. “She has them both.”

“So, if you don’t meet my guys at the fountain by the Central Park boathouse with half a million in thirty minutes, well…”

She reaches behind her, revealing a hand gun. Pepper feels a sob lodge in her throat as the gun presses against her son’s temple. 

“Thirty minutes, Starks. Or you don’t see your boy again.”

And then, the feed stays there. Pepper has to watch as Peter seems to understand he’s in real danger. “Why isn’t the tracker working? Why can’t FRIDAY find them?!”

“They’re at least a little bit smart.” Clint says sharply, fingers moving at lightning speed. “They’re scrambling the signal. I’m working on it, but I’ve only got it down to New York.”

“City or state?”

“State.”

Tony turns back to Pepper. “Strange and Wong aren’t answering the phone. They’re on some kind of mission in a different dimension or some shit, and I can’t think of anyone else. I need to—

“Go,” she says. Her hands cradle his face. “Just like last time, Tony. Bring him back.”

And like that, he’s gone.

Pepper looks back to Rhodey, who comes to her side and offers a hand. She takes it gladly, the two of them watching the feed as people work around them. Her eyes catch sight of Harley's narrowed and zeroed in on the kidnapper, and she wonders if Tony is the one who's really going to save Peter.

 

**)-(**

So, Spider-Man can’t come out to play. Even if Peter’s metabolism works through the tranquilizer, there’s no way for him to fight back without revealing himself for who knows how many people to see.

Harley needs something, some _way_ to get out.

Peter has a gun pointed at his fucking head.

Harley is going to kill her.

“Head on out,” the woman says. “Get the money. We’ll hit the meet up and drop these two where they can get back to Stark.”

The two goons nod quickly, grabbing a couple bags and heading out. The smaller one motions to the camera. “We need to talk in private.”

“We can’t cut the feed, or they won’t have any assurance of his safety,” she says. “We’ll talk outside.”

When they leave, Harley looks over at Peter. They’ve been dating for all of fifteen minutes. Yet, he knows he can't just sit here. He needs to help Peter, knows that he can, if he can just…

A knife. A pocket knife, sitting on next to the computer with a pack of gum and a pair of sunglasses. Somebody emptied out their pockets and then left them alone.

_Idiots._

Harley stood, the chair coming with them. Now that they were in a room with concrete walls, Harley could roughly calculate the correct angle…and _yes_ , this is it. He runs backwards into the wall, despite Peter’s horrified look and the resulting crash where the wood drives into his shoulder blade painfully. It’s quick work from there to turn and maneuver his body to grab the pocket knife from the table. He flicks it open and twists it carefully until it hooks into the zip tie and...

His hands are free.

**)-(**

Pepper watches Harley shatter his chair and disappear off-screen. Its only moments before he’s back on screen, walking behind Peter and freeing his hands. He rips the duct tape of both of their mouths and then everyone in the world can see them kissing.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Peter says, standing shakily. “You could have been hurt.”

“She had a gun to your head, baby,” Harley replies. He presses his forehead to Peter’s. “Tony and Pepper aren’t the only ones who love you, you know. I couldn't sit here.”

Peter makes a weird noise of frustration. “We don’t have time, _fuck_. Okay, um, hey Mom.”

Pepper’s hands shake as he addresses the camera. “Oh, Peter…”

“We don’t know when the mean lady is going to come back, and I don’t know how to write code or anything, so I’m just gonna shut all of this down. Tell Happy that FRIDAY should be able to track me after this. Um, yeah. Harley and I are also dating now? I love you, and I'll see you soon.”

He reaches forward, and the screen goes black.

Happy’s already got Tony on the phone. “We got him, Pep. It’s okay.”

Pepper nods and folds her hands together.

_Tony and Pepper aren’t the only ones who love you._

**)-(**

Harley and Peter tear as many wires as they can, unbothered by the destruction and just hoping to shut everything down.

“So, you love me?” Peter asks nervously. “Is that what I heard before?”

“Was I subtle about it?” Harley yanks up a small circuit board with a satisfied look on his face. “We started dating thirty minutes ago, I’m not expecting you to say anything back. But I also wasn’t going to sit here while someone pointed a gun at your head because...you know.”

“We just…” Peter pauses. He struggles with what to say. “We haven't really known each other for too long.”

“I know.”

“You’re my first boyfriend.”

“I know.”

“What I feel for you is really new.”

“Peter,” Harley says sharply. He looks taken aback with himself for a moment before stepping closer. “I am aware of all of these facts. I still love you, and I still don’t expect anything from you outside of what you’re ready to give. People don’t all go at the same pace and that's perfectly alright.”

“But you were the one waiting, and now you love me?”

“I was waiting _because_ I love you.”

Peter’s stomach flips. Every time Harley says that, he feels good and warm and weirdly satisfied. “And you’re completely okay with me not being ready to say it yet?”

“Yes. Now, we have to go, Peter.”

“Right!” Peter surges forward to kiss Harley again. “I have a lot of my strength back, so I’m going to hop up there and see where we are, then call Tony.”

“Do your thing.”

Peter makes quick work of the window. “These guys were only half-smart. I mean, we’re on a first floor! There was a knife on the table. They gave us wooden chairs. It’s like they’ve never seen a single movie.”

“Not everyone has seen _every movie in the world_ like you have.”

He jumps back down and motions to the window. “I’ll lift you up so you can hop out, then I’ll come after you.”

Harley listens, coming forward and easily reaching up for the window ledge. Peter boosts him up, waiting for the tell-tale “oof!” that Harley grumbles upon landing. Right as Peter jumps up, however, the hair on the back of his neck stands up. Instinct tells him to duck down, so he drops to the floor. Only a second later, the door bursts open and bullets rip into the wall. Peter inhales sharply as two ricochet off the cement. One lodges in his calf, the other rips through his shoulder, and he holds back a wail of pain.

“ _Peter!_ ” he can hear Harley call through the window.

“I’m okay!” he calls back weakly. Rolling onto his side, he sees the woman above him glaring down in fury.

This is about to be very bad.

**)-(**

Harley listens as gunshots go off. When he calls for Peter, he barely hears the reply before there are a few grunt and particularly loud crash. He can't reach the window, doesn't see a quick access point, and wouldn't even know where to begin if he somehow did get in. His phone is gone, he didn't bring any kind of back-up. There's a moment of panic where he thinks he might have to listen to Peter either die or kill someone.

And then.

Iron Man.

Harley waves his hands as Tony flies close. “Kid, where is—

“Inside that window!” Harley cuts him off. Tony flies through the concrete like it's nothing, forming a hole big enough for Harley to climb back through. The scene he walks into is a gruesome one, with the woman passed out at Tony’s feet and Peter leaning against the table. Wires are everywhere, there are weird red lines around Peter’s neck, and blood has been smeared across a couple different spaces.

Peter's blood.

“Peter,” Harley croaks. He rushes to his boyfriend’s side, but Tony raises a hand. “Tony, we…”

“Give me your jacket.” Tony demands. Harley does so, watching Tony rip it in half before handing a piece back. “Use this to press into his leg wound. Even if it hurts, press hard enough to try and slow the bleeding until Bruce gets here.”

“Can’t you take him to a hospital?”

“And leave her here to get away with it?”

“But Peter needs help.”

“I know, kid, but I’m trying to think clearly!”

“I’ll hold her off with her own gun until the others show up. Take Peter.”

“You’re still just a kid, Harley,” Tony rasps. “I can’t choose between saving Peter and staying here to protect you, so I’m trying to do both.”

“I’m different, remember?” Harley presses. He looks down at Peter, pale and unconscious for the second time tonight. His chest constricts and he fights back tears. “I will be fine. Please, you have to take him.”

Tony’s faceplate opens. “Harley, swear to me you understand that i'm not leaving you.”

Harley and Tony have never said they love each other. It’s been an understood fact, especially after everything with Thanos. Harley isn’t like Peter. He doesn’t need to hear the reassurances or have that moment with Tony; their relationship just isn’t that way. But Tony has always been there for Harley. Always supported him and his family, gave advice when asked, spoke earnestly to and encouraged. He knows what they are and that Tony would never leave him if it wasn’t important.

And he knows that the boy he loves is dying, and that’s pretty damn important.

“I swear,” Harley whispers. He ties the torn piece of his jacket around Peter’s leg as makeshift tourniquet before leaning down to kiss his lips briefly. “I swear I understand. Get him out of here, Tony, _please_.”

Tony nods. Harley stands and walks over the limp form of the woman who took them. He doesn’t look back as he picks up the discarded gun, making sure its loaded and ready to fire.

He waits.

**)-(**

For the second time, Peter wakes up slowly. he knows instantly that he’s in a hospital because of the sterile smell, but his senses are clearer now. He can hear chatter from streets over, the sound assaulting him, smell hospital and death and—

_Roses and motor oil._

His eyes open. The lights are off, but that doesn’t stop him from seeing Pepper at his bedside, hand tight in his and face wet with tears from where its pressed into their joined hands. He licks his lips. “M-Mom.”

“Peter,” she gasps in a whisper. From the other side of the bed, Tony’s scrambling to get to his side. “Oh, honey.”

“Hey,” he whispers back. Someone down the hall slams a clipboard down and he flinches. “I think I’m a little oversensitive right now.”

“Oh!” Tony hisses. “I brought your headphones. I have them— _here._ Lets get these in.”

Peter sighs in relief when the tiny earbuds settle right inside his ear to dampen the noise. His headache begins to dissipate, and he can only hear the sounds inside the room. Turning on the lamp next to his bed, he sees Pepper’s red eyes, as well as Tony’s pure relief, and guilt washes over him. “I’m sorry for sneaking away.”

“No, honey, don’t apologize,” Pepper says. “They shot the guards in the garden. You were supposed to be protected anywhere, but these things happen. It’s not your fault.”

“If I had been more on guard, they wouldn’t have been able to get us.”

“You shouldn’t have to be on guard when you’re with your boyfriend at a party.”

Peter glances over at Harley, curled onto the window seat and asleep. “I guess.”

“Are you still hurting?” Tony asks. “I can go get Dr. Cho.”

“No,” he assures them. “I can feel the soreness from the bone rehealing, but everything just feels like it needs a good stretch. I don’t stay beat up for very long, remember?”

Pepper nods. “If you say so.”

There’s a pause.

“So, when did you decide Harley wasn’t so scary after all?”

Peter groans. “Mom, come on—

“I mean, I would like to know too,” Tony supplies. “After all, while we’re here, you can’t run away.”

“Typical.” He shifts a little awkwardly. “We had some time to talk before they put us in front of the camera, where we were locked in a room together. I don’t know, I think I realized he wasn’t just being a flirt, and he realized I had actual feelings for him. He-He said he loves me.”

“On camera,” Pepper supplies.

“Everybody probably knows by now,” Tony grins.

“The whole world is pretty invested in this family, you know.”

Peter laughs, despite the tightness in his throat. “Right. Well, don’t ask me if I love him, I’m still figuring it out.”

“Noted.”

“But I very much like him.”

“Also noted.”

Peter yawns, leaning into the touch of Pepper running her fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry for scaring you both.”

“It’s okay,” Pepper tells him. “Between Tony and Harley, I knew you would be okay. We watched him endanger himself to get you both free. Your identity is still a secret, and you’re still safe.”

“That’s all I care about, Pete,” Tony whispers. “You, safe. That’s literally all we care about.”

Peter closes his eyes, smiling, and drifts back into sleep.

**)-(**

When he wakes up next, Pepper and Tony aren't there, but MJ and Harley are playing cards over his legs while Ned plays with his Nintendo Switch and Betty scrolls on their phone. He scoffs. “Using my body as a poker table? Nice.”

“Peter!” Ned exclaims, standing up. Harley’s there in an instant, cupping his face and pressing a kiss to his cheek. MJ starts cleaning up cards in mock annoyance, a sort of relief glinting in her eyes.

“Hey,” Peter says, reaching up to touch any part of Harley he can. “Glad you’re okay.”

“Me?” his boyfriend deadpanned. “You practically threw me out of a window and then got shot, and choked, and whatever the hell else you got up to. And you’re glad _I’m_ okay.”

“Well, I remember leaving you,” Peter presses his hand to the side of Harley’s neck and takes comfort in the strong pulse there. “You had Tony take me.”

“I was fine, you idiot. Natasha and Steve showed up, like, five minutes later.”

“Which is insane,” Betty pipes up. 

Ned nods excitedly. “Dude, do you realize how famous you are right now? You’re trending! _On twitter_!”

“Stark tried to get all of the footage down, but it was everywhere first,” Michelle adds. She puts the cards in the packet and tosses it aside. “Only you could take all the fame from an event meant to feed the starving people in this country.”

Peter rolls his eyes, but appreciates her familiar attitude. MJ is always exactly what you need.

The three of them stay and chat for over an hour before they get phone calls about heading home. That leaves Harley alone with Peter, who’s looking at him with an almost unreadable expression. Peter doesn’t say anything, but reaches out for Harley’s collar and tugs until he’s sliding onto the bed with him.

“Do you wanna go on a date with me?” Peter asks, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. It’s natural, how he eases onto his side and settles close. “There’s a Star Wars trivia thing in the park this weekend, and we can totally crush everyone else.”

“Yeah,” Harley agrees. “I’ll take you out to dinner after.”

“Maybe we can get a churro.”

“Hmm, perfect.”

They kiss again, this time a little desperately. Peter feels it happening again: the loss of control as everything in his body tells him that the only thing that matters is how close he can get to Harley. He wraps an arm around the other boy’s waist, pulling him close and not caring that both of them have smelly breath, Harley has blood on his shirt, and Peter’s throat is slightly strained from being choked with computer wires. It’s nothing compared to the spark of pleasure that shoots down Peter’s spine when Harley scratches his nails against the base of Peter’s neck.

He shivers, moving in closer, knowing his heart monitor is picking up speed but not caring because he’s pushing the blankets away, finding a way to get closer to Harley. The blonde whimpers when Peter presses over him, hand sliding over to his ass, knowing if he can just get his hands on him—

“Whoa! Down boys!”

Harley falls out of the bed in an effort to get out of it, looking grumpily at Tony and Rhodey. Peter isn’t too pleased himself, seeing the glee his father obviously takes in interrupting them. “ _Dad_.”

“Hey, kid,” he says fondly. “Lucky I convinced the nurses to let me come in here first when your heart rate picked up. If I had thought you would act like me in my youth, I would have given you advice about hooking up in hospitals.”

“ _Ew,_ gross. Please stop talking.”

“Anyway,” Rhodey clears his throat. He throws a bag of clothes at Peter’s bed. “Think you can get changed without jumping each other? Peter’s being discharged.”

Harley glowers at Rhodey, who just shakes his head. “Fucking teenagers.”


	6. from you, i always need

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warning! Though Harley and Peter are at the age of consent, they are both still minors so the parts where sex happens are underage. There is nothing explicit.   
> THANK YOU for the support throughout this story; I love you all and am so glad you've enjoyed it so far <3

Honestly, after the torture of holding back for over the summer, Harley isn’t expecting it to last very long.

Ten minutes though? They’re going to have to work on that.

The morning after Peter's fully healed, Tony and Pepper have a day of meetings with SI. Everyone eats breakfast together, though Harley barely manages to roll out of bed in a pair of sweats. Peter colors a little when he walks into the kitchen. The sleepy/embarrassed look of his boyfriend makes Harley grin and lean in for a quick kiss. Peter squeaks, but he links their fingers together as they go to sit down.

"What do you have planned for the day?" Tony asks over his coffee mug.

HArley shrugs. "Watch a little TV? Maybe get back in the gym."

"Just take it easy," Pepper warns both of them.

"Mom," Peter huffs, head lolling back in annoyance. Harley's heart rate picks up as the pale neck is exposed. This is obviously something Peter notices, because he jerks down and gives Harley an odd look.

They go back to breakfast in silence. 

Twenty minutes later, right as the door shuts behind Pepper and Tony, Peter shoves Harley’s back into the couch and slides between his legs. “Babe, do you-”

“Yes,” Harley groans. He fumbles for the zipper on Peter’s jeans immediately. There was supposed to be romance, no morning breath, no parents having just left for work, and _way more foreplay_. Peter, however, looks like he’s going to burst, and Harley can’t hold back anymore. After their conversation in that stupid padded room, all that Harley can think about is the fact that Peter is operating like an exposed nerve: raw to everything and terribly overwhelmed.

He’s going to fix that.

Peter whimpers when Harley’s fingers ghost over his briefs. “I don’t want you to stop yourself, Harley. I _need_ you to not stop yourself if you want this.”

“Are you sure, baby?” Harley asks. Peter has somehow worked the shirt off his body, so bare skin hits bare skin and they both hiss. “I don’t want to make you feel like—

“ _Harls_ ,” Peter whines. “It’s not like that, I want—I want you so bad. I need you inside me, _please_.”

The 'please' shatters any hesitation Harley might have had. From there, its silence as they kiss each other and reach for as much skin as possible. Harley wants to make this perfect for Peter, looks up at the boy above him and promises to _work you open so good, make you so ready, darlin', I swear_. And as he does, Peter’s head falls back like he’s seen God, tears at the corners of his eyes and thighs shaking. Harley wants more of it. He’s trying to feel everything, step back and catalog what makes Peter extra crazy, but he’s just as subject to losing it as Peter is. It’s like they know where to go, what to do to each other, and _Harley isn’t going to last because he’s been waiting all summer for this and Peter feels impossibly good—_

“Fucking hell,” Harley pants, minutes later. Peter is shaking above him, their foreheads pressed together and his eyes half-lidded. “Who cares about feelings? We should have done that sooner.”

“Mhmm,” Peter mumbles. He drops his head to suck a lovebite into Harley’s skin. “Your fault.”

Harley brings their lips together again, exchanging a lazy kiss that sends a hum of contentment across his body. “Forgive me?”

“Definitely.”

**)-(**

Their _Star Wars_  trivia date goes well, at first.

“I didn’t know answering trivia questions correctly got you going,” Harley smirks as he and Peter tumble behind a bush.

“Just like me solving puzzles gets you going?”

“Dork.”

“Nerd.”

“ _Shit,_ ” Harley hisses. Peter is already kissing up his torso and finding that spot under his left pec that makes him shiver. “Are you trying to cover me in bruises?”

“No.” Peter nips. “I like hearing you when I do it, though.”

“Fuck you, Stark.”

Peter pops back up almost comically, head tilted to the side like the puppy he is. “Isn’t that the point?”

Harley loves him so goddamn much.

**)-(**

“Wait, you’re the nerd of all nerds, and you haven’t seen any of Game of Thrones?”

“No?”

“Peter, we are doing _nothing_ else, for the rest of the week.”

**)-(**

A week later, Pepper walks in from work to find Ned and Peter crying softly on the floor of his bedroom, Harley rubbing both of their backs sympathetically.

“That’s it!” she exclaims. “It is summer break, you are all _high-schoolers_. Seventeen-year-olds should not be locked in a room for seven days.”

“Robb,” Ned whimpers. “The King in the North.”

“We know no king, but the King in the North, whose name is Stark.” Harley swallows. 

Peter wipes at his eyes. “I can’t watch this show anymore.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry,” Pepper says. She walks to the curtain and jerks it open so that the room floods in sunlight. Peter flinches, closing his eyes while Ned pretends to melt.

“Mom!”

“Peter!” Pepper snarks back. “Get up and get out of the house. Go play in a park, do some heroin, steal a car, I don’t care as long as it doesn’t happen in a bedroom.”

Peter looks at Harley. “Robb Stark would never treat me this way.”

“I know baby, I know,” Harley replies. “On the plus side, Pep just said we can do heroin.”

Pepper wrings her hands. “Out! Now!”

**)-(**

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Peter looks over at Harley, who looks up at the sky. They’re on the roof of the compound, stargazing.

“I don’t know if I’ve decided yet,” Peter admits. “I want to keep being Spider-Man, but I want an actual career too. Am I Spider-Man permanently, working for the Avengers? Or maybe…I thought about working for my dad, but…it feels so confusing. I didn't always have so many options, you know? You?”

“I’m going to be a mechanical engineer, for sure,” Harley answers. “I’m going to go to MIT, I’m going to get a job at Stark Industries, and I’m going to take over the entire corporation from the hot twink who tries to run it.”

Peter snorts. “Maybe I’ll seduce the lead mechanical engineer into doing my bidding.”

“Maybe he’s too smart for that.”

“You’re right, I’ll have to make him fall in love with me. Play the _long game_.”

“Hey!”

Peter giggles and Harley rolls to smack his chest. He reaches over for blonde curls and pulls his boyfriend closer. “Hey, how long have you known what you wanted to do?”

“Always. I know its different for some people, but its never been a question for me. I work with machines, I understand them. I want to spend hours a day, elbow deep in motor oil and making the world a better place. I wanted that before I met Tony, but he always solidified it. I want to make a difference.”

_You will,_ Peter thinks. _You already have._ Aloud, “If you already knew what you wanted, why did you ask me?”

“Because I want to know your hopes and dreams,” Harley shrugs, looking down fondly at him. “You know I like to know things, to understand what’s coming. Maybe I want to know if there’s space in your future for me.”

Peter contemplates that. “Even if I don't know what I'm going to do, we can always make space for each other. Isn’t that what a relationship is? Making space for the person you love?”

“Yeah,” Harley agrees softly. He brushes Peter’s bangs from his eyes and leans down to kiss him. “Yeah, it is.”

They twist together, then, Peter drawing Harley close and pretending that August isn’t looming right around the corner.

**)-(**

“I love him,” Harley whispers to Tony. They’re sitting in the lab, both tinkering with improvements to the Iron Man suit. “Tony, I love him.”

“I know, kid,” Tony sighs. “And you know summer is almost over.”

Harley doesn't say anything in reply. 

**)-(**

Harley is asleep in Peter's bed when a weird alarm goes off.

He sits up, disoriented, but able to catch sight of Peter slipping into a pair of briefs. "Peter?"

"A mission, top priority, whole team," Peter rushes out. He hits a button on the wall that reveals his Spider-Man suit. "I've got to go."

Something weird sinks in Harley's stomach. _He wants to ask Peter to stay_. "Whole team must mean it's pretty bad."

"It is." Peter grabs his suit and turns towards the bed. "I have to go."

"Kiss me first," Harley whispers.

Peter complies, sinking on his knees in the bed. Harley wraps his arms around his boyfriend, pulling their bodies close together as they kiss. Peter is holding Harley's shoulders like his life depends on it, while Harley twists his hands into Peter's hair.

_He wants to ask Peter to stay._

"I love you, baby, please be safe."

"I'll try."

_He wants to ask Peter to say._

"Promise me."

"I promise."

They kiss again, too briefly, and Peter slides into his uniform. Harley follows him out of the room to see Tony and Pepper hugging. Pepper kisses Peter’s head, hugs him tightly, and lets go.

Tony squeezes Harley's shoulder affectionately. "There's a lot of us now. We should be okay."

"Yeah, you guys are superheroes," Harley agrees, hoping he sounds light. "You do it all the time."

Harley doesn't want to say that it's different now, because he's admitted that he loves Peter, that there's something fierce and intense in his heart and he just... _he wants to ask Peter to stay._

"We gotta go, Pep." Tony touches her cheek softly.

She nods but doesn't say anything else. Peter looks at Harley again, eyes beautifully vulnerable. He just...puts the worry right there before he turns and trails behind Tony.

Ten seconds later, the alarm stops, and Harley's ears are ringing.

"Come on, honey," Pepper says. Her voice is tight. "Neither of us are sleeping, so let's go get some food."

Harley and Pepper end up on the kitchen island, a spread of take out between them. Harley admires the ordered chaos of pizza, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, and McDonalds. The fries are awkwardly reheated and the pizza crust is too chewy, but it's just distracting enough to not imagine that Peter's killing himself.

"They haven't had a big mission since you've been here," Pepper says around a steamed dumpling. "How are you holding up?"

Harley roughly swallows his pizza. "Not thinking about it so I don't overthink it, I guess."

Pepper nods.

Harley reaches for a taco. The sinking feeling in his gut isn't going away. "What was it like, when Tony first started doing this?"

"I hated it," Pepper admits. "I tried to quit, before we were even together. Then he told me why he was doing it, and I just can't seem to argue with that. I still hate it when he leaves, and I wish he would retire, but I understand it. That's the biggest thing."

"I understand it," Harley says quietly. "I just...don't like worrying this much about someone. When Abby died, I wanted to die. She's the only person I've ever really loved, you know? My mom is never around, and my dad broke my heart. I've gained you and Tony, and I love you guys, but Peter is something else. I've never...I don't know."

"It's hard to explain," Pepper comments. She pokes at another dumpling, her entire body hesitating. "Everybody talks about the intensity of young love, but you two are unlike anything I've ever seen. There's this gravity between you that I don't understand, and Tony is the love of my life."

"But you both love Peter more than anything else in the world. Maybe it's not us. Maybe it's just Peter."

Because it is. They both know it; Peter is special. Peter is good, almost untouchable. He protects and he loves and he saves. Harley doesn't understand it, how someone can be so fucking good—and there's not really another word for it. _Good._

"I love him," Harley says softly. "And I don't know how to handle the thought that one day, he might not come back."

"You don't believe it's a possibility," Pepper shrugs. She picks up a cheeseburger now. "Tony always comes back. And if he doesn't, it will hurt, but it will be okay because he has fought for a long time. If he dies to save the world, I know that he died doing something he cared about. Something that was important to the both of us. And as for Peter? Well, Tony would never let Peter die. He doesn't care much for the laws of the universe or moral ethics when it comes to our kid."

Harley thinks about Tony during the months between the Snap and the Reverse.

_"I don't care what it takes. I don't care who else dies, I don't care if I die. Peter is coming back, there isn't any time for food or sleep."_

_"And if you die before you have the chance to fix everything?"_

_"Clint, please, I can’t stop working. I can't close my eyes."_

_"I know, Tony. It's why I'm sedating you, just so you can get some rest. You'll pick it up tomorrow."_

_"Clint, no—"_

Harley takes a sip of his drink as he contemplates Tony's love for his kid. "I don't think he would let himself die, either. I mean, he wouldn't put Peter through losing another dad."

"Exactly. There's no room for error."

"Won't that make it worse if something happens?"

"Honestly? I can't imagine anything worse than one of them not coming back. Nothing would make it easier. Nothing would make it harder. There wouldn't be any wiggle room."

"I guess you're right."

"Excuse me? I'm always right."

**)-(**

Two nights later, Harley goes to bed after getting a phone call that Peter’s a little banged up, but otherwise doing well. The only person who was really hurt was Wanda, and she’s getting patched up on the jet home.

“I’ll be home soon,” Peter had told him tiredly. “Don’t wait up for me.”

Now, Harley is pulled from his sleep by a weight on his mattress. He rolls over to see a freshly showered Peter sliding into the bed and reaches for him. They kiss, Peter’s hands digging into Harley’s hips and pulling him close.

“Glad you’re home,” Harley murmurs, pushing Peter onto his back. He settles between his boyfriend’s legs. “Missed you.”

“I missed you,” Peter whispers back. He runs his fingers up Harley’s bare back before twisting into his hair. His legs hook around Harley’s waist as they kiss again, already moving against one another. Peter is alive, breathing harshly beneath Harley and holding onto him. It brings warm sense of relief through Harley, and he _revels_ in it.

“I love you,” Harley murmurs into Peter’s neck, feeling the other boy’s pulse beneath his lips.

“I know,” Peter replies.

There isn’t much talking after that.

**)-(**

They try to ignore it, but August comes faster than they could have imagined.

Harley slowly starts packing. He takes breaks for trips to the movies, working in the lab with Peter and Tony, family dinners out to eat or in the dining room, days spent wondering around the city with MJ and Ned. There are endless museums to visit and hundreds of jazz concerts to attend. He sees The Lion King on Broadway three more times.

He spends every moment he can with Peter, who resolutely ignores the end of summer as well as he does. Their way of dealing with it?

Having Peter come back to Tennessee for a week.

“You call me when you land, okay?” Pepper says as Happy loads their luggage on the jet. “I’m serious, honey.”

“I know,” Peter answers. He kisses her cheek and wraps his arms around her. “I love you, and I’ll call. We’ll be fine.”

Pepper lets go of Peter and reaches for Harley. “Please call, sweetie. Not just Peter, just keep in touch with us. And if you need anything, if you want to come and visit...well, you know you can always call."

“I love you too, Pepper.” Harley hugs her tightly. “I’ll be okay.”

“I hate you being there all alone.”

“One year, right?”

“Yeah,” she sniffles. “One year. Before then, we’ll see you for Peter’s birthday, and for Christmas break, and—"

“Pepper.” Harley squeezes tighter. “Thanks for being a good mom. Thanks for caring about me. Just because I’ll be in Tennessee doesn’t mean I’ll forget that.”

Pepper chuckles at him. “Always too smart for me.”

When he and Tony say goodbye, it’s not awkward or overly emotional. They grin at each other, share a not-so-secret handshake, and a quick hug. Tony ruffles his hair. “So, I'll send your car down. It should arrive a couple hours after you guys do."

"I still don't understand why we can't drive," Peter pipes up. "Besides, you know, a paranoid mom."

Pepper raises her eyebrow. "Do you want to go at all?"

As Peter and Pepper start bickering, Tony catches Harley's eye again. "If you need anything, buddy, for the lab or personal reasons, you let me know.”

“I won’t have to,” Harley responds. He motions between them. “You know, since we’re—

“Connected.”

They share one last high five, and Harley takes Peter’s hand to climb aboard the jet.

Harley doesn’t waste any time. They wave to staff as they pass, ask not to be disturbed, and then lock themselves in the bunk. Instead of slowing down as they get used to each other, Harley and Peter are getting more desperate. There is always too much space, maybe because their separation is getting closer. Harley knows they could see each other often if they really needed to, but Peter’s schedule is insane. Between school, getting back into robotics, keeping up with Decathlon, and acting as Spider-Man, he’s going to be insanely busy.

The time for Harley will decrease, even if they don’t want it to.

“Stop thinking,” Peter murmurs as they kick off their shoes. “If you’re with me, you’re _only_ with me.”

God, Harley loves this. Peter grabs the thread between them and keeps Harley focused on only that. He gets even prettier when they get lost in each other, eyes turning their brown warmth into something molten, with skin flushed and hair falling out of its perfectly slicked back style. He unravels.

“That’s more like it,” Peter giggles—fucking giggles—and goes for the buttons of his own shirt. “Just don’t eat me, okay? You look like you want to.”

“I’m not making any promises.” Harley pounces, knocking Peter back onto the bed. Peter’s giggles turn into breathy laughs as Harley takes over unbuttoning his shirt. He kisses down the perfectly sculpted torso while he does so, open-mouthed and tasting. “You’re just so delicious. I can’t resist.”

Peter doesn’t say anything as Harley bites into his hip bone, just juts up a little with a choked sound.

“You’re gonna come apart for me so beautifully, darlin’,” Harley murmurs. “Fuck, it’s gonna be good.”

Peter surprises Harley by flipping him over, hands held above his head and legs straddling him. “You know, you never stop talking.”

“It’s a personality flaw. We can’t all be perfect like you.”

“A shame.”

Harley smirks. “You’ve got everybody fooled, Peter. They think you’re so sweet and innoce— _fuck!_ ”

“Yeah,” Peter hums against his collarbone. “Nobody would believe you, though.”

“Why’s that?”

Harley’s hard the second Peter pulls back, lips a little swollen and spit-slick. His eyelashes flutter and when he speaks, his voice is gentle and soft. “Because I’m Peter Parker, and everybody loves me."

God, Peter is _sin_ , and Harley is going to burn in hell for the things he wants to do to him.

Peter grinds down at the same time as he ducks his head and bites Harley’s ear, causing the boy to hiss. “God _damn_ it, darlin’.”

“You’re going to stop talking for once in your life…” Peter whispers, nosing along Harley’s neck. “And you’re going to lay back while I ride you. I’m going to take my time and enjoy you, babe, until _you’re_ the one falling apart for _me._ You're at my mercy now."

Peter all of a sudden pulls back, eyes wide. “Wait. As long as that’s okay with you, I mean.”

_Fucking hell_ , Harley is going to defile this boy.

“Yes,” he says aloud, thrusting up to show Peter exactly how okay it is. “It’s what I want, baby, please—

Peter shuts him up with a filthy kiss, and Harley is _so far gone._

**)-(**

Tennessee is gorgeous.

Upstate New York has mountains, yeah, but its not quite so gentle as the rolling hills of the South. There’s a comfort there, in the quiet where there isn’t even a city skyline in sight. It’s just farms, hills, and a tiny town square where people give Peter and Harley weird looks.

“Ignore them,” Harley pushes his shades up his nose, momentarily blinding Peter with how handsome he is. “Small town South doesn’t like gay people.”

“What? It’s 2020.”

“Small town South,” he repeats, as if that explains it all. "I am very out of the closet, and nobody really likes it."

They don’t talk until they get to the edge of the town, walking up to a modest-looking house. It’s yellow with white trim, has flowers on either side of the porch, and a creaky screen door.

Peter loves it.

“Mama!” Harley calls when he gets in the house. “Abby! I’m home.”

Peter can hear two more heartbeats in the house. One of them accelerates at the sound of Harley’s voice before a pair of feet sound on the hardwood floor. Around the corner flies a teenager a few years younger than the boys. She’s thin like Harley, with his hair and eyes, smile a little jaded.

“The prodigal son returns,” she smirks. “Took you long enough.”

“I got distracted,” Harley shrugs.

Abby looks up and down at Peter. “Yeah, that checks out.”

She runs at her brother with a laugh, and that seems to be the end of that.

**)-(**

There isn’t much to do in Rose Hill, Tennessee. They’re a long way from anywhere really fun, there aren’t any towers to swing on, and its almost painfully quiet.

Abby spends a lot of time with her friends, so after the initial “you’re my brothers boyfriend and we have to spend time together so we can find out if you’re acceptable” stage, she spends her days running around with them. Harley's mom only uses the house to sleep (though often she doesn't come home) and eat when Harley cooks.This leaves Peter and Harley with a lot of alone time; they work in Harley’s lab, on cars and trucks around town, and on ideas for Peter take back so he can properly prank the Avengers in his boyfriend’s absence.

There are a lot of moments when Harley finds himself staring at Peter, that ache in his chest growing, before he distracts himself. He knows Peter sometimes looks at him the same way.

“It’s going to be different when you leave,” Harley pants one afternoon. They’re in the field behind Harley’s house, laying on a picnic blanket of their clothes. Peter has a shine to him from the sweat, and Harley leans down to lick it off him.

“It doesn’t have to be." Peter stutters over his words, still in his oversensitive stage after orgasm. “We’ll talk, we’ll see each other.”

“But it’ll be hard, long distance is always hard.”

“But it’s worth it, right?”

Harley nods, words caught in his throat. “Peter, for me, its worth everything. God, _you_ are worth everything.”

“Why do you act like this is one-sided?” Peter reaches up for him. “Harley, I want you, I want this.”

“And when you don’t have me around, harassing you all the time?”

“I’m not harassed, you drama queen.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I, I’m with you because I want to be." Peter strokes a thumb down his jaw, brow furrowed. "Why don’t you hear me when I say that?”

Harley rolls off of Peter, already feeling empty and feeling stupid for starting the conversation. “Come on, we should go inside.”

“Babe, please.”

“I have to get dinner started.”

“Harley,  _talk_ to me—

“It’s fine, Peter.” Harley grabs his shirt and leans in to peck Peter on the lips. “You’re right, I’m feeling dramatic. Last day and all.”

“I shouldn’t have come to Tennessee,” Peter whispers. “Right? We’re dragging goodbye out and its upsetting you.”

“I’m fine, darlin’, really. I’ll see you inside.”

Harley feels like an ass. The truth is, Peter is right about him coming to see Tennessee. Harley should have never offered, because now there’s no clean goodbye. Harley’s pillow smells like Peter’s shampoo, his workbench has the imprints of Peter’s hands from Harley bending him over the table, and Abby has colored a controller to fit Peter’s personality on their PlayStation. He is everywhere.

And he’s going to go back to New York, get busy, and not have time for Harley. The same way Tony stopped having time for him, right? Before the Snap? Peter will move on with his life, in his exciting city and his exciting life, while Harley mopes around Rose Hill with a shattered heart.

The rest of the evening proceeds _so awkwardly_ that Harley’s mom leaves for work early and Abby decides to spend the last night of summer at her friend’s house. Peter mumbles something about getting ready for bed and heads to the guest room.

Harley cleans up the kitchen, alone, and continues to feel like an ass.

It’s not until after midnight, when everyone has gone to bed, that Peter slips into Harley’s room. He sits up, not that surprised when Peter doesn’t slide into the bed with him. Instead of the lecture Harley expects, however, the young superhero stands directly in front of the bed and pulls out a sheet of paper to deliver something much sweeter.

He begins to read.

1\. You make me laugh like nobody else can  
2\. You know almost as much Star Wars trivia as me  
3\. You love me, even though you think Star Trek is better  
4\. You make sure Tony remembers to eat when he gets working on a project, that Pepper has coffee on her busy days, that Ned wears sunscreen, that Betty feels comfortable, and MJ remembers her phone charger  
5\. When you walk into a room, I can’t breathe because you’re so gorgeous  
6\. Your eyes turn grey and your cheeks flush when you get excited about car engines  
7\. You haven’t spoiled the ending of Game of Thrones for me  
8\. You make sure I feel safe after a nightmare  
9\. You watch Jurassic Park with me, even though you hate it  
10\. You broke a chair to free yourself so we could escape, just because someone pointed a gun at my head  
11\. You accept Spider-Man  
12\. You’re smart  
13\. You want to improve the lives of those around you

Harley watches Peter, his throat tight as the other boy finishes with shaky hands. “Peter…”

“I love you, Harley,” Peter says, smiling sadly, and Harley can’t believe he’s saying it. “And I want you to know why. That’s all I’ve got so far, but yeah. _I love you._ You should feel secure in that. There’s no mystery, no room for escape. I’m leaving tomorrow. This doesn’t have to end, though, right? I don’t want it to.”

Peter walks forwards, dropping the letter and stripping his shirt from his body.

“I love you,” he says again. “And we can make it work.”

Harley pulls Peter into his lap. “I love you, Peter. And you’re right, we will make it work.”

They kiss, and Harley wants to be vulnerable with Peter. He knows that anytime they’re together, Peter is holding something back. Whether its strength or emotion, he isn’t sure, but he wants this to be different. It’s their last night together, and Harley wants it all.

“I don’t know what you’re reeling in,” Harley breathes. “But don’t, okay? Physically, emotionally, whatever. Let it go, because I want it. I want you. I can take it.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Peter replies. He runs his fingertips down Harley’s back and cants his hips. They’re both getting hard. “I know it sounds cliché, but its true. I still don’t always have control.”

“So lose control.” Harley presses kisses along his chest and neck. “I promise you that I’ll be alright. Please, Peter, tonight…lose control.”

Something flips in Peter then, because when he pushes Harley onto the bed, his kiss is a little rougher than normal. Harley moans as he licks and nibbles his way down skin, pulling Harley’s sweatpants off so he’s completely bare. There’s something to be said for the way Peter works him to a full length in his hand and then takes Harley in his mouth like that’s all he wants.

From there, Harley can do nothing but subject himself to Peter’s attentions. When he takes his mouth off of his cock, he kisses his way back up and teases the skin of his thighs with light scrapes before pressing the nails in and pulling Harley’s body close. He’s shaking, even as they find the lube and he works Harley open for what must be hours, pulling sounds he didn’t know existed from his throat, as if this is his way of still taking care of Harley, who is reeling at the care Peter takes being top. It’s a completely different experience, the vulnerability and the openness that comes with having someone prepare you for themselves.

Maybe he’s never trusted anyone enough before.

He’s definitely never loved anyone.

“ _Come_ on, baby,” Harley pleads, reaching for Peter’s neck. He pulls them together for a bruising kiss, raw and exposed, needing that space to be filled like it’s the only thing to keep him from losing his mind. “I’m good, I’ll be fine, just…let go. _I trust you_.”

Peter whimpers at that. “Promise me you’ll tell me—

“ _Darlin’_ ,” he cries. He’s painfully hard, straining for touch and ready to be taken, so, so ready. “Please, I promise, please, trust me to tell you. I love you so much, Peter, I want this.”

Peter lets go, and Harley falls in love all over again. 

 

_from you,_

_i always need_

_one more kiss,_

_one more hug,_

_one more touch;_

_simply, always, more of you;_

_i dont want what we have to stop_

_-georgy_


End file.
